Charles B. Litaay representing Aru Islands Regency candidates Temy Oerssipuny-Hady Djumaidy Saleh, Friday (12/6/2024) at the Constitutional Court. Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Aru Islands regent-vice regent candidates 1 Temy Oerssipuny-Hady Djumaidy Saleh have filed a petition challenging the results of the 2024 regent election to the Constitutional Court (MK). They argued that a formal requirement had not been met, i.e. debt-free certificate from the district court.

“There is a requirement of [debt-free certificate] of individual candidates or their dependent legal entities [which is suspected to not have been met], and there could potentially be state loss,” said legal counsel Charles B. Litaay on Friday, December 6, 2024.

Article 42 paragraph (1) letter m of the General Elections Commission Regulation (PKPU) No. 9 of 2015 requires a certificate stating freedom from debt that leads to state loss for individual and/or their dependent legal entities, issued by a district court in the prospective candidate’s domicile in the candidate selection, as referred to Article 4 paragraph (1) letter j. The Petitioners hope the Court would examine this failure to meet the election procedure.

“We also hope it would be part of the Constitutional Court’s correction of the process or the petition filed,” Litaay said.

Two candidate pairs competed in the Aru Islands regent election: the Petitioners and candidates 2 Timotius Kaidel-Mohammad Djumpa.

Kaidel-Djumpa, who were endorsed by the coalition of PKB (National Awakening Party), Democrat, PAN (National Mandate Party), Golkar (Party of Functional Groups), PKS (Prosperous Justice Party), Perindo (United Indonesia Party), Gelora (Indonesian People’s Wave Party), and PKN (Nusantara Awakening Party), won the election with 31,456 out of 51,899 votes. Meanwhile, Temy-Hady, who were endorsed by Hanura (People’s Conscience Party), Gerindra (the Great Movement Party), PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle), PPP (United Development Party), and Nasdem (National Democratic Party), got 20,443 votes.

TSM Violations in Serang Election

Meanwhile, Serang regent candidate pair 1 Andika Hazrumy-Nanang Supriatna alleged that candidate pair 2 Ratu Rachmatuzakiyah-Muhammad Najib Hamas had committed structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations by moving bureaucracy starting from the village level until the ministerial level as well as election organizers.

“[We] suspect the involvement of bureaucracy in the TSM violations, which hindered our political performance, leading to the votes not meeting our expectations,” said legal counsel Deni Ismail Pamungkas after filing the petition.

Ratu-Najib won 598,654 votes while Andika-Nanang (Petitioners) earned 254,494. The Petitioners believe the margin of 244,160 votes was caused by the TSM violations, which had eroded the value of direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair election.

Ballots Marked in Siak Regency Election

Siak regent-vice regent candidates 3 Alfedri-Husni Merza alleged that candidate pair 2 had committed a TSM violation, as ballots had been marked prior to voting. The Petitioners had received reports that of such an incident at several polling stations all across the region.

“Our [observers] who entered the voting booth to cast a vote saw that the ballots had been marked on [candidate pair] 2. They then asked for a ballot replacement to the committee. We did not think much of it, maybe it was a mistake. But it happened again,” said legal counsel Misbahuddin Gasma.

He alleged that many Alfedri-Husni voters had not been aware of the previously-marked ballots, which made them invalid. As a results, those ballots were not counted as they were seen as invalid.

“So, the central point was (candidate pair) 2 because the marked ballots [created a margin between] them and (candidate pair) 3 and (candidate pair) 1. All the findings pointed to (candidate pair) 2,” he said.

Candidate pair 2 Afni-Syamsurizal won 224 votes higher with 82,319 votes in the Siak regent election in Riau Province. They won against incumbent candidate pair 3 Alfedri-Husni Merza, who earned 82,095 votes, and candidate pair 1 Irving-Sugianto, who earned 37,988 votes.

Until 17:15 WIB on Friday, December 6, the Court has received 80 petitions over the 2024 regional election results—59 relating to regent election and 21 relating to mayor election. These petitions were either lodged online or on site at the Court’s main building.

Author              : Mimi Kartika
Editor               : N. Rosi
Translator         : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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