Muh. Salim Darwis, the Petitioners’ legal counsel delivering a statement in the preliminary hearing of the South Halmahera regency election result dispute, Friday (1/10/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — South Halmahera Regent Candidate Pair 2 Rusihan Jafar and Muhtar Sumaila claimed the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) of the regency to be not independent nor professional, since they dismissed and did not register the reports of violation without looking into the report materials and evidences.

“The South Halmahera Bawaslu has been found to be not independent and not professional,” said Muh. Salman Darwis, the Petitioners’ legal counsel before the panel 2 presided over by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani in the preliminary hearing held on Friday, January 10, 2025 in one of the courtrooms of the Constitutional Court (MK).

Salim claimed that the South Halmahera Bawaslu, throughout the election period, had never objectively or proportionally followed up any of the reports of violation submitted by the Petitioners, the campaign team, or their legal representatives. As a result, the reports were declared unproven. The violations include the incumbent candidate’s acts of mobilizing village heads across South Halmahera in their campaign.

There were also replacement of officials six months before the candidate announcement until the end of the incumbent term, the abuse of authority and misappropriation of government programs and activities, significant mobilization of civil state apparatus (ASN) to support the incumbent, politicization of trust fund, and the lack of neutrality of district election committee (PPK) and polling committee (PPS). 

Rotation of Regency Government Officials

Hassan Ali Bassam Kasuba, the incumbent regent of Halmahera Selatan, allegedly rotated or replaced 77 administrative structural officials in March 2024 and 142 functional officials in September 2024. The Petitioners believe the General Elections Commission (KPU) should have disqualified Candidate Pair 3 for carrying out rotation or replacement of government officials, which is in violation of Article 71 paragraph (2) of the Regional Elections Law.

In the vote acquisition certified by the South Halmahera KPU, Candidate Pair 1 Bahrain Kasuba-Umar Hi Soleman obtained 22,362 votes, Candidate Pair 2 Rusihan Jafar-Muhtar Sumaila 36,144 votes, Candidate Pair 3 Hasan Ali Bassam Kasuba-Helmi Umar Muchsin 53,074 votes; and Candidate Pair 4 Jasri Usman-Muhlis Djafaar 12,526 votes. However, the Petitioners argued that Candidate Pair 3 should have won 0 votes for their conduct of systematic, structured, and massive (TSM) violations.

Thus, in their petitums, the Petitioners requested that the Court annul the South Halmahera KPU Decree No. 1804 of 2024 on the 2024 regent election results dispute dated December 4, 2024 and rule the correct vote acquisition as petitioned by the Petitioners. They also requested that the Court disqualify Hasan Ali Bassam Kasuba and Helmi Umar Muchsin as the regent-deputy candidate pair of South Halmahera. 

Author : Mimi Kartika

Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.

PR : Fauzan Febriyan
Translator : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin / 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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