The Petitioners’ legal counsel Eko Saputra testifying for the mayoral election results dispute case No. 89/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 in the panel 2 courtroom before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani, Monday (1/13/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

---

JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Dumai mayor-vice mayor candidate pair 2 (Ferdiansyah and Soeparto) have filed a mayoral election results dispute petition on the Dumai City KPU (Elections Commission) decree certifying that the candidate pair 3 (Paisal and Sugiyarto) had received the most votes. The Petitioners claimed that the Dumai City KPU (Respondent) and candidate pair 3 (Relevant Party) had committed structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations that significantly affected the votes for candidate pair 2.

“The mayor candidate 3 Haji Paisal has used his authority and position as Dumai mayor to make a political agreement in the form of a memorandum of understanding with an organization in Dumai City,” explained the Petitioners’ legal counsel Eko Saputra at the preliminary hearing for case No. 89/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on Friday, January 10, 2025 in the panel 2 courtroom. Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra presided over the hearing for this case with Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani.

The Petitioners alleged that Paisal had made promises of budget allocations in the Dumai City regional budget (APBD) to the Dumai City Batak community family association (IKMBD) in exchange for their votes. Also, Paisal allegedly distributed gifts, including sarong with a reelection tagline that read “H. Paisal for the Mayor of Dumai” and cash envelopes containing Rp100,000 to community members.

Mobilization of RT Heads

The Petitioners argued that candidate pair 3 had mobilized RT (neighborhood unit) heads, Village Community Empowerment Institutions (LPMK), and integrated health service posts (posyandu) members to support their campaign. This included a workshop and outbound activity in Bukittinggi on August 21, 2024 where attendees were instructed to vote for Paisal, and a three-day event for Dumai posyandu members from September 4-6, 2024 to promote Paisal’s candidacy.

Then, the Petitioners also argued that intimidation and persecution by the campaign team of candidate pair 3 against the campaign team of candidate pair 2 on November 21, 2024. They also accused volunteers of candidate pair 2 of spreading disinformation of and smear tactics against candidate pair 3.

Losing the Right to Vote

The Petitioners also argued that the Dumai City KPU had restricted voters’ rights through structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations, including by deliberately not delivering voter invitations and not disseminating inadequate information to the public about voting using their resident IDs.

The Dumai City KPU has certified the following vote results: candidate pair 1 Eddy A Mohd Yatim-Almainis with 3,570 votes, candidate pair 2 Ferdiansyah-Soeparto with 31,319 votes, and candidate pair 3 Paisal-Sugiyarto with 105,333 votes. The Petitioners stated that the violations by the Respondent and the Relevant Party had significantly impacted their votes on this election.

In the petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to: 1) annul the Dumai City KPU Decree No. 449 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 Dumai mayor-vice mayor election results; 2) declare invalid and cancel the announcement of Paisal and Sugiyarto as Dumai mayor-vice mayor candidates; 3) order the Dumai City KPU to do a revote no later than two months after the Court’s decision; and 4) order the KPU to disqualify and revoke the rights of candidate pair 3 in the revote.

Author           : Mimi Kartika
Editor            : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                 : Fauzan Febriyan
Translators    : Ryan Alfian/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.

---