The Petitioners’ legal counsels Yandri Sudarso and Andhika Yudha Perwira attending the preliminary hearing for case No. 233/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on Sula Islands regent election result dispute, Tuesday (1/14/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Petitioners argued the involvement of civil apparatus (ASN) in case No. 233/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Sula Islands regent election results dispute. Candidate pair 3 Hendrata Theis and Muhammad Natsir Sangadji (Petitioners) attended the preliminary hearing presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah on panel 1 on Tuesday, January 14, 2025.

For this case, the Sula Islands KPU (Elections Commission) serves as the Respondent while candidate pair 2 Fifian Adeningsih Mus and Saleh Marabessy act as the Relevant Party.

The Petitioners’ legal counsels Yandri Sudarso and Andhika Yudha Perwira mentioned several names of civil apparatus, officials of Sula Islands Regency Government, and village apparatus allegedly involved in securing the Relevant Party’s election victory. This involvement is reflected in the decrees of regent and village heads.

“Based on our findings, we collected 35 regent decrees stipulating the transfer of apparatus who refused to follow the regent’s instruction. There are also 32 village head decrees [stipulating the transfer of officials] who declined to follow the instructions of village heads and village secretaries,” explained Yandri while reading the petition.

At the hearing, the Petitioners also mentioned vote-buying in all districts of Sula Islands Regency. In the petition, the Petitioners outlined 17 cases of vote-buying in November 26-27, 2024, with the amount ranging from Rp500,000 to Rp8.5 million.

The Petitioners have reported such violations to the district court, with the decisions including the village heads proven to favor the Relevant Party.

“[We have sent] 22 reports to the Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body), three of which were decided by the district court of Sula Regency until the high court, where said individuals have been proven to have committed acts that favored candidate pair 2,” explained Yandri.

For these reasons, the Petitioners request the Court to annul the Sula Islands Regency KPU decree on the certification of the 2024 Sula Islands Regency election results. They also requested the Court to declare partiality in the election.

In their petitums, the Petitioners also wish the Court will disqualify the Relevant Party and order the Sula Islands Regency KPU to conduct a revote at all polling stations no later than 30 days after the decision.

The petition for case No. 233/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 can be accessed here.

Author          : Ashri Fadilla
Editor           : N. Rosi
Translator    : Ryan Alfian/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL) (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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