Eko Saputra, the Petitioners’ legal counsel, at the preliminary hearing for the Jeneponto regent election results dispute, Tuesday (1/14/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Jeneponto Regent Candidate Pair 1 Muhammad Sarif and Moch Noer Alim Qalby argued that the vote difference between them and Candidate Pair 2 Paris Yasir and Islam Iskandar was because the Jeneponto KPU (Elections Commission) as Respondent had dismissed the recommendation for a revote by the district elections supervisory committee (Panwascam). The Petitioners of Case No. 232/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 argued that the unimplemented revote had cost them their votes.

“The Respondent did not carry out the revote as recommended by Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) or Panwascam. Other violations by the Respondent are in the polling process, which should have resulted in a revote,” said Eko Saputra, the Petitioners’ legal counsel, at the preliminary hearing presided over by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2 on Tuesday, January 14, 2025.

The Petitioners also complained that there were voters who voted twice at two different polling stations. As such, they believe that a revote should have been conducted at 15 polling stations.

The Petitioners’ and the Relevant Party’s votes at 10 polling stations were 1,479 and 1,654 votes respectively from 5,387 voters listed in the final voters list (DPT). Meanwhile, at the other 15 polling stations, they obtained 1,068 and 3,845 votes respectively, out of the total 8,214 listed in the DPT. If all the polling stations were to be gathered, the DPT would add up to 13,601 voters, which could significantly alter the respective pairs’ vote acquisition.

At the moment, the vote difference between the Petitioners and the Relevant Party was only 1,086 votes and already met the threshold set in Article 158 paragraph (2) of Law No. 10 of 2016 (Regional Election Law). The current vote acquisition certified by the Jeneponto KPU is: Candidate Pair 1 Efendi Al Qadri Mulyadi-Andry Suryana Arief Bulu with 7,141 votes, Candidate Pair 2 Paris Yasir-Islam Iskandar with 89,147 votes, Candidate Pair 3 Muhammad Sarif-Moch Noer Alim Qalby with 88,083 votes, and Candidate Pair 4 Syamsuddin Karlos-M Syafruddin Nurdin with 27,543 votes.

On the contrary, the Petitioners believe the legitimate vote acquisition for the candidate pairs should be 6,858; 83,657; 85,547; and 26,119, respectively. This was calculated under the assumption that every candidate pair’s votes at the 25 disputed polling stations had been declared to be zero.

In their petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Jeneponto KPU Decree No. 799 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 regent election results dated December 8, 2024 and to declare the lawful vote acquisition as deemed correct according the Petitioners, stating Candidate Pair 1 Efendi Al Qadri Mulyadi-Andry Suryana Arief Bulu to have won 6,856 votes, Candidate Pair 2 Paris Yasir-Islam Iskandar 83,657 votes, Candidate Pair 3 Muhammad Sarif-Moch Noer Alim Qalby 85,547 votes, and Candidate Pair 4 Syamsuddin Karlos-M Syafruddin Nurdin 26,119 votes. At the very least, they requested the Court to order the KPU to conduct a revote at 25 polling stations.

The petition for Case No. 232/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 can be accessed here.

Author            : Mimi Kartika
Editor            : N. Rosi
Translators     : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

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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