The Petitioners’ legal counsel Donal Fariz testifying at the preliminary hearing for the gubernatorial election results dispute of Case No. 257/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani, Thursday (1/9/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The South Sulawesi governor-vice governor candidate pair 01 Moh Ramdhan Pomanto and Azhar Arsyad filed a petition of election results dispute No. 257/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025. The Petitioners alleged there had been various structured, systematic and massive (TSM) frauds and violations where state civil apparatus (ASN) and relatives were directed to support candidate pair 02 Andi Sudirman Sulaiman and Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman.

“[We submitted] the statement of South Sulawesi acting governor Profesor Zudan Arif Fakrulloh as evidence Exhibit P7: ‘The only choice for South Sulawesi is only two, and I am not talking specifically about any particular candidate pair, two is safe.’ We interpret this as an endorsement for a certain candidate pair,” explained the Petitioners’ legal counsel Donal Fariz at the preliminary hearing on Thursday, January 9, 2025 in the panel 2 courtroom. Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra chaired this hearing with Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani as panel members.

Ramdhan-Azhar alleged that the incumbent governor candidate pair 02, Andi Sudirman Sulaiman, had abused his authority and misappropriated state apparatuses and government programs for his benefits. The Petitioners submitted video clips as evidence of endorsement, including that from South Sulawesi acting governor Zudan to candidate pair 02 Andi Sudirman Sulaiman-Fatmawati Rusdi and a two-finger greeting made by the South Sulawesi Health Office staff members ahead of the election.

Nepotism and Collusion

Governor candidate Andi Sudirman Sulaiman is the younger brother of Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman. The Petitioners noted financial assistance was distributed by the Minister of Agriculture in May-October 2024 several times. Once was worth Rp2.9 trillion, consisting of regular assistance in 2024 (Rp356.3 billion), natural disaster assistance (Rp48.4 billion), and subsidized fertilizer assistance (Rp2.57 trillion) in seven regencies.

The Petitioners have reported the above violations to Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body). They also noted that the mobilization of Soppeng Regency apparatuses by the acting regent to attend covert campaigns for the benefit of candidate pair 02, such as the celebration of the 355th anniversary of South Sulawesi.

One day before the election, the Petitioners reported the head of the South Sulawesi Provincial Population and Civil Registry Office to Bawaslu, alleging the record of electronic resident ID (e-KTP) of prisoners in Makassar correctional facility to benefit candidate pair 02. In October, the Petitioners also reported the same person on the acceleration of e-KTP recording of students throughout Makassar City, purposefully to benefit candidate pair 02. In the same month, the Petitioner also reported acting regional secretary of Makassar City Irwan Rusfiandi Adnan, who was affiliated with said candidate pair.

Anomalous Number of Invalid Ballots

The Petitioners claimed that one of the causes for the high number of invalid votes was complicated ballot papers and the number of candidate pairs. They expected there would be more invalid ballots for the Makassar mayoral election considering the four candidate pairs. However, on the contrary, the invalid ballots were higher in the South Sulawesi gubernatorial election, i.e. 30,374 ballots compared to 14,603 for the Makassar mayoral election. The Petitioners suspected negligence or deliberate intent of the South Sulawesi KPU (Elections Commission) as Respondent to decrease the Petitioners’ votes by invalidating ballots that should have been counted for the Petitioners.

Manipulation of Final Voters List

In addition, the Petitioners found manipulation of voter attendance, leading to potential double voters at polling stations in villages or districts in Makassar City and regencies or cities in South Sulawesi. They suspected fake signatures on the voter attendance lists (DHPT), indicated by signatures on the attendance lists that differed from those on the resident ID cards, the statement of KPPS (polling station working committee) members who claimed they signed the attendance lists themselves, statements of voters who were present at the polling stations but were not asked to sign the attendance lists, and signatures that were visibly identical on two or more names on the attendance lists.

In the petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to: 1) disqualify the South Sulawesi governor-vice governor candidate pair 02; 2) annul the South Sulawesi Provincial KPU Decree No. 3119 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 South Sulawesi governor-vice governor election relating to the votes that candidate pair 02 received; and 3) order the South Sulawesi KPU to issue a decree certifying candidate pair 01 as South Sulawesi governor-vice governor with 1,600,029 votes. Alternatively, the Petitioners wished the Court would order the South Sulawesi KPU to do a revote of the 2024 South Sulawesi gubernatorial election at all polling stations.

Author               : Mimi Kartika
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                     : Fauzan Febriyan
Translators        : Ryan Alfian/Yuniar Widiastuti (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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