Legal counsels Muhammad Arif and Khalid Akbar at the preliminary hearing for Case No. 13/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Padang Panjang City mayoral election results, Friday (1/10/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Constitutional Court (MK) held a preliminary hearing for Case No. 13/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 concerning the 2024 Padang Panjang City mayoral elections results on Friday, January 10, 2025. It was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justice Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah.

The Petitioners are Candidate Pair 02 Nasrul-Eri, represented by their legal counsels Muhammad Arif and Khalid Akbar. Meanwhile, the Padang Panjang City KPU (Elections Commission) is the Respondent and Candidate Pair 03 Hendri Arnis and Allex Saputra are the Relevant Party.

The Petitioners revealed structured, systematic, and massive violations as they found vote buying or money politics.

“Quantitatively, it has a very significant impact on the loss of votes for the Petitioners,” said Muhamad Arif when reading out the petition.

This vote buying was committed by ghost witnesses. The Petitioners alleged that 1,600 volunteer assignment letters had been distributed to these witnesses during election silence. They were tasked to get 10 voters to vote for the Relevant Party with a reward of Rp300,000.

“[The rewards] were given gradually: in the first stage Rp150,000 was given during election silence, while in the second stage Rp150,000 was given after election day,” explained Arif.

The Petitioners argued that the violations were committed in a structured, systematic, and massive manner during election silence on November 25 and 26, 2024 in several places including at the campaign center next to BRI bank of Padang Panjang, at cafes, and at voters’ houses. The Petitioners admitted to having reported such violations to the Padang Panjang City Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) on December 4, 2024.

Referring to the above petitions, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Padang Panjang City KPU decree concerning the certification of the 2024 mayoral election results. They also requested the Court to certify them as the most voted candidates. Besides, they requested the Court to order the Padang Panjang City KPU to hold a revote.

“[The Petitioners request that the Court] order the Padang Panjang City KPU to hold a revote in all polling stations in Padang Panjang City without involving Candidate Pair 03 Hendri Arnis-Allex Saputra,” said Khalid Akbar.

The Court further requested the Padang Panjang City KPU (Respondent), the Relevant Party, and Padang Panjang Bawaslu to respond to the petition at the next hearing. “The KPU, the Relevant Party, and Bawaslu, please provide a response,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo before closing the hearing.

Author              : Ashri Fadilla
Editor                : N. Rosi
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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