Legal counsel submitting evidence after the preliminary hearing of Case No. 95/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the Pekanbaru City Mayoral General Election Result, Wednesday (1/82024) in Panel 3 Courtroom. Photo by MKRI/Bayu

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Pekanbaru City Mayoral Candidate Pair 01 (Muflihun-Ade Hartati Rahmat) argues the abuse of the Riau Province Regional Budget (APBD) in the election dispute. The Court held a preliminary hearing of this case—registered under No. 95/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025—in the Panel 3 Courtroom. The panel members include Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat (chair) and Constitutional Justices Enny Nurbaningsih and Ridwan Mansyur.

KPU, as the Respondents, issued the Decree of Pekanbaru General Election Commission (KPU) which specified five candidate pairs in the election. The candidate pair 05, Agung Nugroho-Markarius Anwar, secured the election with 164,041 votes, while the Petitioner obtained 72,475 votes.

Ahmad Yusuf, the Petitioner’s legal counsel, alleged the margin of 91,766  votes between candidate pairs number 1 and 5 due to the abuse of the Regional Budget , specifically that of the Riau Tourism Office. The petition reported the travel allocation budget of Riau Province from February to November 2024 was taken for the benefit of mayoral candidate Agung Nugroho—formerly the DPRD Vice Chairperson of Riau Province.

The budget was used for the Implementation of Advanced Capacity Building Activities of Tourism and Creative Economy Human Resources that did not follow the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy/Head of the Tourism and Creative Economy Agency Regulation No. 1 of 2023. Such activities only include the participation of tourism associations, businesses or Tourism Awareness Group (Pokdarwis) and similar registered businesses.

 

“Instead, in such events, the activities include the members of Pekanbaru Koran study circle in campaigning for candidate pair 05,” said Ahmad in panel courtroom 3.

The abuse of the Regional Budget can be subject to disqualification by referring to Article 71 paragraph (3) jo. Article 71 paragraph (5) of Law No. 10 of 2016 on the Second Amendment to Law No. 1 of 2015 on Elections of Governors, Regents, and Mayors.

Abusing State Facilities

In addition to the Regional Budget misuse, the Petitioner’s petition stipulates that they have evidence that candidate pair 05 used government facilities, namely the field of Vocational State School 1 in Rintis Village, Limapuluh district, Pekanbaru for a campaign. In such an event, they also distributed souvenirs to the audience.

In the petitum, the Petitioner requests the Court to annul the Pekanbaru City KPU Decree No. 864 of 2024 on the Certification of the 2024 Pekanbaru Mayor-vice Mayor Election Results dated December 4, 2024. The petitioner also requests the Court to render invalid and non-binding all minutes and certificates of votes recapitulation results from each polling station (i.e., the C-result-KWK-forms and D-result-KWK-forms of the mayor election) that KPU Pekanbaru City and all its staff issued.

The Petitioner also wishes the Court to consider the regional budget abuse for the campaigning purposes of candidate pair 5 as structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations, including the violations of Article 71 paragraph (3) of the Pilkada Law. The sanctions under Article 71 paragraph (5) apply to the violator, including the candidacy nullification by city-level KPU.

As such, the petitioner requests the Court to declare candidate pair 05 violating the Pilkada Law, consequently nullifying and disqualifying them from the Pekanbaru mayor-vice mayor election candidate. The petitioner also requests the Court to declare and order the KPU Pekanbaru for a revote according to the democracy principles, no later than two months after the Court’s decision. The petitioner also requests the Court to order the Respondent to update all the problematic final voters list (DPT) following applicable regulations.

Lastly, the Petitioner wishes Court to order the Respondent to disqualify and revoke the rights of candidate pair 05, Agung Nugroho-Markarius Anwar as they are proven to have violated the Pilkada provisions.

Alternatively, Ahmad continued, the Petitioners wishes the Court to order the Respondent for the following: 1) conduct a revote no later than two months after the Court's decision; 2) declare that the petitioner obtained the most valid votes based on the majority vote calculation for the 2024 Pekanbaru mayor-vice mayor election; 3) correct and update the problematic final voters list (DPT) in accordance with applicable regulations; 4) disqualify and revoke the rights of candidate pair 05 in the 2024 Pekanbaru mayor-vice mayor election as they are proven to have violated the Pilkada Law provisions.

“Should the Court decide differently, please make a fair decision based on the principle of ex aequo et bono,” said Ahmad. (*)

Author       : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor         : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR               : Tiara Agustina
Translator : Ryan Alfian/FS (RA)

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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