Fitrul Uyun Sadewa (right) as the Petitioners’ legal counsel at the preliminary hearing of Case Number 07/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 disputing the Banjarbaru City mayoral election results, Thursday (1/9/2025) on Panel 3. Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA, MKRI - Hamdan Eko Benyamine, Hudan Nur, Zepi Al Ayubi, and Sani Firly are residents of Banjarbaru City and members of the Mingguraya Long Bench Academy who filed a petition objecting to the absence of a blank vote in the Banjarbaru City mayoral election. The hearing for Case Number 07/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 was presided over by Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat, Enny Nurbaningsih, and Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh on Panel 3.

Initially, the Kota Banjarbaru mayoral election will be followed by two candidate pairs: candidate pair number 1 Lisa Halaby-Wartono and candidate pair number 2 Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said Abdullah. However, on October 31, 2024, the Banjarbaru City KPU (Elections Commission) as Respondent cancelled the candidacy of Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said Abdullah, who had allegedly committed an administrative violation of Article 71 paragraph (3) in conjunction with paragraph (5) of Law Number 10 of 2016 on the Second Amendment to Law Number 1 of 2015 on the Stipulation of the Government Regulation in Lieu of Law Number 1 of 2015 on the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors into Law (Regional Election Law).

The cancellation was stated in the Banjarbaru City KPU Letter Number 747/PL.02.3-SD/6372/2024. Despite this cancelation, they did not create a blank vote. Instead, the picture of Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said was put on the ballots and ballots for them were considered invalid. As a result, Lisa Halaby-Wartono gained 36,135 votes while the invalid votes reached 78,736.

The Petitioners felt deprived of their rights due to the unavailability of the blank vote, which they believe should have existed.

“Post-disqualification, the Respondent should have created a blank vote, but it was never executed until voting day,” stated the Petitioners’ legal counsel Fitrul Uyun Sadewa on Thursday, January 9, 2025.

In their petition, the Petitioners argued that the Banjarbaru City KPU (Respondent) had committed a structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violation for not presenting the blank vote on the ballot papers and had deliberately ignored Article 54C paragraph (2) of the Regional Election Law which reads, “The election of 1 (one) candidate pair is carried out using a ballot paper containing two columns consisting of 1 (one) column with a photo of the candidate pair and 1 (one) blank column with no picture.”

The absence of the blank vote, the Petitioner argued, began when the South Kalimantan Provincial KPU used the Central KPU Decree No. 174 on technical guidelines for the implementation of voting and vote counting in the election of governors and vice governors, regents and vice regents, and mayors and vice mayors, which was stipulated on November 23, 2024. The instruction, which was then followed by the Banjarbaru City KPU, was seen as a structured violation.

“In fact, the Respondent seems to have been silent and legalized the fraud, so that at the time of the election, only 50 percent of the people came to the polling stations to exercise their right to vote, and as a result, of this year’s election was won by invalid ballots. That means the majority of people in Banjarbaru City do not want the Lisa-Wartono to be the elected mayor and vice mayor. However, they are forced to be certified based on the Central KPU Decree Number 174,” Fitrul added.

The Petitioners regarded efforts that tended to favor one particular candidate pair as systematic violations. These efforts began with the registration of the candidate pairs on August 27-29, 2024, the disqualification of Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said Abdullah on October 31, 2024, and the failure to reprint ballot papers, which resulted in the ballots where Candidate Pair Number 2 were marked being considered invalid votes.

Lastly, the Banjarbaru City KPU did a massive violation by not presenting a blank vote in the ballot papers at 403 polling stations (TPS) spread across five districts and 20 villages. This is certainly unconstitutional, because it violates Article 54D of the Regional Election Law: “The provincial or regency/city KPU shall certify 1 (one) elected candidate pair in the election as referred to in Article 54C if they earn more than 50% (fifty percent) of all valid votes.”

In their petitums, the Petitioners asked the Court to cancel the Banjarbaru City KPU Decree Number 191 on the certification of results of the 2024 mayor-vice mayor election dated December 2, 2024 and to certify the votes for Lisa Halaby-Wartono (36,135 votes) and the blank vote (78,736 votes).

“[The Petitioners request that the Court] order the Banjarbaru City Elections Commission to conduct a revote in Banjarbaru City on September 25, 2025 starting from the candidate registration stage as the regional election was won by a blank vote,” Fitrul said.

Author         : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor          : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR               : Tiara Agustina
Translators   : Dinita Aktivia/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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