The legal counsel Erik Setiawan, while testifying at the preliminary hearing for case No. 169/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 presided over by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and Constitutional Justice Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2 in the courtroom. Thursday (1/9/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Constitutional Court (MK) held a preliminary hearing presided over by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on Panel 2 for case No. 169/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 concerning the 2024 Batam City mayoral election results dispute filed by Candidate Pair 01 Nuryanto-Hardi Selamat Hood. 

The Petitioners requested the Court to disqualify Candidate Pair 02 Amaskar Achmad-Li Claudia Chandra–the most-voted candidate at the 2024 Batam City mayoral election. Also, they asked for the Court to secure the win for them. 

“[The Court] to certify Candidate Pair 01 Nuryanto-Hardi Selamat Hood as the winner of the 2024 Batam City mayoral election” said legal counsel Erik Setiawan when reading out the petition.

The reason preceding the requests was that Candidate Pair 02 Amaskar-Claudia committed a structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violation in the 2024 Batam City mayoral election. Erik said that the difference in vote results between candidate pair 01 and candidate pair 02 of 134,887 because Amaskar-Claudia committed a TSM violation.

“According to the Petitioners, the difference in the vote acquisition was caused by TSM Violations in the form of cheating by structural officials/apparatus, violations of the neutrality of government officials, the National Police, and KPU (General Election Commission) and Bawaslu (General Election Supervisory Body) as the election organizers” stated Erik when reading out the main petition.

Threshold Enforcement Delay

Further, Erik requested the Court to delay the enforcement of the provisions concerning the threshold of the mayoral election results dispute as regulated in the Article 158 paragraph (2) of the Regional Election Law. This is required by the Petitioners to prove to the Court regarding the TSM violations committed by Amaskar-Claudia even though the difference in votes between these candidate pairs does not exceed the mayoral election results dispute threshold as regulated in Article 158 paragraph (2) of the Regional Election Law.

The Petitioners argue that the enforcement of the provisions concerning the threshold of the mayoral election results dispute in Article 158 paragraph (2) of the Regional Election Law restricts their rights to file a petition and prove the TSM violation. In addition, they think that this enforcement decreases the meaning of democracy in the mayoral election. It does imply that the fraudulent practice and/or violation will never be revealed as the Petitioners’ opportunities are blocked due to the enforcement of the threshold.

“The implementation of Article 158, paragraph (2) of the Regional Election Law 10/2016, which restricts the Petitioners’ rights to file a petition concerning the mayoral election result dispute and prove the TSM violation to the Court, diminishes the meaning of democracy by disregarding the aspect of justice that aligns with the principles of direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair elections,” explained Erik at the preliminary hearing.

Author: Achmad Sulthon Zainawi
Editor: N. Rosi
Translator: Syifa Amelia / 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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