Muhammad Anwar Sadat and Norharliansyah, the Petitioners’ legal counsels, at the preliminary hearing for the East Kotawaringin regent election results dispute, Monday (1/13/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Regent-Deputy Regent Candidate Pair 2 Sanidin and Siyono alleged the mobilization of village chiefs at the East Kotawaringin regent election results dispute hearing on Monday, January 13, 2025. The preliminary hearing for Case Number 166/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah on panel 1.

In this case, Sanidin-Siyono act as Petitioners; meanwhile, the East Kotawaringin KPU (Elections Commission) and Candidate Pair 1 Halikinnor-Irawati act as Respondent and Relevant Party, respectively.

On behalf of the Petitioners, legal counsels Muhammad Anwar Sadat and Norharliansyah highlighted the candidacy declaration at the Relevant Party’s campaign basecamp. They alleged that the Relevant Party had mobilization village chiefs from 17 districts, members of DPD (Regional Representatives Council), as well as polling working committee (PPS) head and members.

The Petitioners also mentioned Bawaslu’s (Elections Supervisory Body) response. Norhaliansyah added, “Bawaslu had issued a recommendation, after which the KPU issued a decree to terminate or dishonorably discharge the head of the polling working committee in question.”

The Panel needed to ensure that the recommendation had been issued. However, the Petitioners only attached a statement letter in their evidence, so the Panel requested them to conduct a recheck.

In addition, the Petitioners argued that there had been procedural violations in the vote count, misappropriation of local government programs, abuse of the facilities of the regent position, and money politics or vote buying.

“The vote buying carried out by Candidate Pair 1 involved the East Kotawaringin government officials,” said Anwar.

All of the structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations had been reported by the Petitioners to the Central Kalimantan Bawaslu. Yet, those reports were not followed up and declared unproven.

The Petitioners also reported violations related to campaign props and banners of the regency’s Office of Public Works and Housing. “The receipt of report number 2 et cetera pertaining to campaign props, the status is discontinued, for the reason that the report was not proven as an election violation,” Anwar added.

Based on those arguments, the Petitioners requested that the Court annul the East Kotawaringin Decree No. 1428 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 regent election results. Furthermore, they requested the Court to disqualify Candidate Pair 1 and to order the East Kotawaringin KPU to carry out a revote at all of the polling stations. “[The Petitioners request the Court to] order the KPU of East Kotawaringin to carry out a revote no later than 60 days after the decision is pronounced,” the legal counsels concluded.

The petition for Case Number 166/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 can be accessed here.

Author            : Ashri Fadilla
Editor            : N. Rosi
PR                 : Tiara Agustina
Translators     : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/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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