Legal counsel Denny Indrayana at the preliminary examination hearing for Case No. 06/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the Banjarbaru mayor election results dispute, Thursday (1/9/2025). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – Registered voters Udiansyah and Abd. Karim alleged the unprinted ballots containing empty columns in the Banjarbaru mayoral election. Represented by their legal counsel, Denny Indrayana, they submitted these arguments at the preliminary examination hearing of the Banjarbaru mayoral election results dispute on Thursday, January 9, 2025 in panel 3 courtroom.

At the hearing presided over by Justice Arief Hidayat (panel chair), Denny stated that the Petitioners had legal standing. He argued that the Banjarbaru Election Commission (KPU) violated the fundamental constitutional rights of voters by failing to provide empty columns on the Banjarbaru election ballots and enforced a single candidate pair rule in the Banjarbaru mayor election results dispute.

Denny explained that there were initially two candidate pairs for the election: Lisa Halaby-Wartono (Candidate Pair 01) and Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said Abdullah (Candidate Pair 02). However, the KPU disqualified Candidate Pair 02. According to the Regional Election Law, if only one candidate pair remains, the election shall proceed with a single candidate pair against an empty column.

However, the Banjarbaru KPU continued to print ballots that included photos and serial numbers for both candidate pairs despite the disqualification. As a result, any votes cast for Candidate Pair 02 were declared invalid. According to the vote count, only 31.5% of the votes were deemed valid, while 68.5% were considered invalid.

"The Respondent failed to print blank columns on the ballots. It continued providing ballots with the photos of Candidate Pair 01 and Candidate Pair 02. According to policy 4a, if voters cast their ballots for Candidate Pair 01, their vote is considered valid. However, if they vote for Candidate Pair 02, who had been disqualified, their vote is declared invalid. As a result, the actual valid votes in the Banjarbaru election amounted to only 31.5%, while invalid ballots accounted for 68.5%," said Denny.

Denny argued that the Banjarbaru City KPU's policy was highly detrimental to voters and contradicted democratic principles. According to the KPU's reasoning, Candidate Number 1 would still be declared the winner, even if they received only one vote, as all other votes would be deemed invalid.

Denny further emphasized that the Banjarbaru KPU had failed to perform its duties professionally. Therefore, the Petitioners requested that the Banjarbaru mayor election be repeated the following year, fully supervised by the KPU of the Republic of Indonesia (KPU RI), to ensure that the principles of democracy are upheld.

Denny asserted that the Banjarbaru mayor election violated the constitutional right to vote, as it eliminated the right to vote for an empty column in the case of a single candidate pair. He highlighted the need for improvements in the upcoming 2025 regional elections or for a revote to be held, implementing a single candidate pair against an empty column, but under the supervision of the KPU RI.

Therefore, in their petitum, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Banjarbaru KPU Decree No. 191 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 Banjarbaru mayor election recapitulation dated December 2, 2024, at 10:00 PM WITA. They also requested the Court to certify the correct vote counting recapitulation as outlined in the Banjarbaru KPU Decree No. 191 of 2024, reflecting 36,135 votes for Candidate Pair 01 and 78,736 votes for the empty column. This would bring the total valid votes to 114,871 votes. Additionally, they requested that the KPU RI take over the Banjarbaru mayor re-election process in 2025, repeating all stages of the election. (*)

 

Author  : Utami Argawati
Editor   : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR : Tiara Agustina
Translators     : Nazila Rikhusshuba / 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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