Jakarta. The General Election Commission (KPU) on Sunday certified the results from the West Sumatra legislative election, which saw ex-corruption convict Irman Gusman elected as one of the four senators from the province.

Irman, who was the speaker of the Regional Representative Council (DPD), the upper chamber of the national legislature, was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission in September 2016.

The DPD requires four elected representatives, equivalent to senators in the United States, from each of the 38 provinces across the country.

Irman won the seat by receiving the fourth-most votes in the provincial election among 16 contenders, according to the KPU’s final count. He received 176,987 votes, ranking fourth after Cerint Iralloza Tasya (283,020), Muslim Yatim (199,919), and Jelita Donal (187,765).

The KPU initially rejected Irman’s nomination for the DPD election, citing his conviction, which deprived him of the right to hold public office for five years after his release from prison on September 26, 2019. Irman wasn’t included in the ballot during the February 14 election.

However, he successfully challenged the ruling at the State Administrative Court (PTUN) by revealing that his political hiatus judgment lasted only three years, meaning he was eligible to contest the election by the registration date in 2023.

On June 10, during the election dispute hearing at the Constitutional Court, whose ruling is final and binding, justices declared Irman’s candidacy legitimate and ordered a redo election for DPD members in West Sumatra with Irman becoming a contender.

KPU Commissioner Idham Kholik certified the results of the West Sumatra election during a plenary session at the KPU headquarters in Jakarta on Sunday, clearing the way for Irman’s return to the DPD.

Irman was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison on February 2, 2017, after the court found him guilty of taking a kickback payment in return for amending West Sumatra’s sugar import quota to favor a local company. His jail time was reduced to three and a half years after he appealed to the Supreme Court.

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