Legal counsel Irwin testifying at the preliminary hearing for Case No. 207/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2, Thursday (1/9/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – Candidate Pair 01 Siti Sutinah-Yuki Permana (Sutinah-Yuki) was suspected to have used funds from the state budget allocated for the second stage of earthquake relief in Mamuju Regency. It was questioned by Candidate Pair 02 Ado Mas’ud dan Damris (Ado-Damris) in their petition for Case No. 207/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025. The preliminary hearing for the 2024 Mamuju Regency election results dispute was held on Thursday, January 9, 2025 in the panel 2 courtroom.

Before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra, the Petitioners’ legal counsel Irwin stated that Sutinah-Yuki, the incumbents, had utilized funds from the state budget allocated for Mamuju Regency’s second stage of earthquake relief in 6 districts while campaigning. These districts include Mamuju, Kalukku, Simboro, Tapalang District, West Tapalang, and Bonehau. Moreover, on November 19, 2024, 153 members of the earthquake relief fund validation team for phase II collected data in these districts.

“On November 19, 2024, 153 members of the earthquake relief fund validation team for phase II collected data in these districts to support the campaign of candidate pair 01,” said Irwin when reading out the petition.

Irwin further requested the Court to disqualify Sutinah-Yuki. The Petitioners argued that the use of earthquake relief funds is contrary to the Article 73 of the Regional Election Law that prohibits candidates from giving money or other goods to influence voters and/or election organizers.

“[The Petitioners request that the Court] disqualify Candidate Pair 01 Siti Sutinah and Yuki Permana who were certified based on the Decree of the Mamuju Regency KPU (Elections Commission) No. 828 of 2024 concerning the certification of candidate pairs for the 2024 Mamuju Regency regent-vice regent election,” explained Irwin.

Author         : Ahmad Sulthon Zainawi
Editor          : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR               : Fauzan Febriyan
Translators   : Syifa Amelia/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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