Legal counsel Fadly S. Tuanany (left) at the preliminary hearing for case No. 245/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 North Maluku governor election results dispute Friday, (1/10/2025) on panel 3. Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – The significant difference in votes between Candidate Pair 02 Aliong Mus-Sahril Tahir (Petitioners) and Candidate Pair 04 Sherly Joanda-Sarbin Sehe (Relevant Party)—the most voted candidate—is suspected to be caused by structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations. This was conveyed by the Petitioners’ legal counsel Fadly S. Tuanany at the preliminary hearing for the North Maluku gubernatorial election results dispute in case No. 245/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 in the panel 3 courtroom on Friday, January 10, 2025. The petition was filed by Candidate Pair 02.

At the preliminary hearing chaired by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, Fadly stated that the violations involved state civil apparatus in the North Maluku Provincial Government and other stakeholders, such as the North Maluku Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) and acting governor Abubakar Abdullah. He alleged structured, systematic, and massive violations had been committed by the Relevant Party as well as the North Maluku Provincial KPU (Elections Commission) and Bawaslu.

One of the alleged violations was the preferential treatment given to the Relevant Party during medical examination at Gatot Subroto Army Central Hospital (RSPAD) Jakarta. The Petitioners asserted that other candidate pairs underwent their examinations at Chason Boesuri Ternate Hospital, as stipulated by the KPU’s decision.

“Actions that violate provisions also include the distribution of photos and stickers of Candidate Pair 04 via WhatsApp messages by the acting governor and the regional secretary, which caused the information to spread widely in public, both in North Maluku Province and throughout Indonesia,” said Fadly.

The Petitioners further emphasized that the Relevant Party had not complied with the KPU’s decision regarding the designated hospital for the gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial candidates’ medical examination. Additionally, they argued that the KPU’s decision to certify the candidate pairs within a short timeframe, despite questionable health conditions, was flawed and rushed.

Fadly read out the petition, stating that the KPU’s decision to approve the Relevant Party had been reported to the North Maluku Province Bawaslu. However, Bawaslu ignored and rejected reports filed by other candidate pairs regarding the election stages. Consequently, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the North Maluku Province KPU Decree No. 67 of 2024 concerning the certification of the vote counting results recapitulation for the 2024 North Maluku gubernatorial election dated December 8, 2024. Furthermore, they requested the Court to grant their petition by disqualifying or canceling Candidate Pair 04 Sherly Tjoanda-Sarbin Sehe from the 2024 North Maluku gubernatorial election.

Author: Utami Argawati
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR: Tiara Agustina
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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