The Petitioner’s legal counsels, Firman Wijaya and Roslan, while attending the preliminary hearing of case No. 69/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on Morotai Island regent election result dispute. Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Morotai Island regent-vice regent candidate pair 1, Deny Garuda dan Muhammad Qubais Baba (Deny-Qulbais), argued a certain candidate pair used a fake identity. The Petitioner’s legal counsel Roslan stated this argument in the preliminary hearing in panel 1 courtroom, Tuesday, January 14, 2025. Chief Justice Suhartoyo chaired the hearing for this case No. 69/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 with Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah.

The Morotai Island Regency General Election Commission (KPU) served as the Respondent, where candidate pair 3, Rusli Sibua and Rio Christian Pawane served as the Relevant Party for this case.

The fake identity, as stated by the Petitioner, refers to the occupational detail listed in the resident ID of the Relevant Party, the regent candidate pair 3.

“[The regent] candidate pair 3 is allegedly faking his identity to register in the 2024 Morotai Island election. Rusli Sibua changed the occupation in his resident ID issued on August 19, 2024, from civil servant to entrepreneur,” explained Roslan while reading the petitioner.

With his status as civil servant, the Petitioner argues the Respondent should not announce the Relevant Party’s candidacy as regent candidate. Based on the petition, the Petitioner considers the Relevant Party has not received the decree on his resignation or the receipt of a resignation statement.

In addition, the Petitioner also questioned the announcement of the Relevant Party as Morotai Island regent candidate due to his status as a debtor. The Petitioner claimed that the Relevant Party still has a debt of Rp92 billion based on the 2012 Tobelo District Court Decision.

 “Legally, having debt violates the requirements for becoming a regional head candidate as stipulated in Article 7 Letter k of the Pilkada Law and Article 14 Paragraph (2) letter j of KPU Regulation No. 8 of 2024,” stated Roslan.

The Petitioner also argued about the vote differences between the voter attendance list and the votes on the C-Result form in all subdistricts of Morotai Island Regency. In fact, there is a total difference of 1,590 votes and 2,467 unsigned ballots, making a total of 4,057 votes. The Petitioner claimed that the vote difference was due to the vote inflation conducted by the Respondent to favor a candidate pair.

As such, in the petitum, the Petitioner requests the Court to annul the Morotai Island Regency KPU Decree No. 101 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 Morotai Island regent-vice regent election results. The Petitioner also requested the Court to disqualify the Relevant Party from the regent elections.

The Petitioner also wishes the Court to order the Central KPU to take over and carry out revote in the Districts of East Morotai, North Morotai, Morotai Jaya, West South Morotai, Rao Island, and South Morotai without candidate pair 3 no later than 30 days after the decision.

For information, candidate pair 2 (Syamsuddin Banjo and Judi Robert Efendis Dadana) also filed a similar petition registered as case No. 19/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 where both parties similarly argued the Relevant Party’s identity and his status as a civil servant.

The petition for case No. 69/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 can be accessed here

Also read: State Civil Apparatus Status Questioned in Morotai Island Election Dispute

Author           : Ashri Fadilla
Editor            : N. Rosi
Translator     : Ryan Alfian/Fuad Subhan

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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