Petitioner’s legal counsel, Yohanes Muaja testifying in the regent election dispute of case No. 86/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 in panel 2 courtroom, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra with Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani, Tuesday (1/14/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — the Southwest regent-vice regent candidate pair 3, Djein Leonora Rende and Ascke Alexander Benu argued Structured, Systematic and Massive (TSM) violations in the form of government involvement to secure the election victory for candidate pair 1 (Ronald Kandoli and Fredy Tuda). The petitioner presented such an argument in Southeast Minahasa regent election dispute on Tuesday, January 14, 2025.

Before the hearing, Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra inquired about the withdrawal letter received by the Court for this case.

“It's official that you sent a letter withdrawing this petition, but suddenly it was canceled without a cancellation letter,” asked Justice Saldi, who also questioned the reason for the legal counsel to withdraw without asking the Petitioner.

“Apologies, Your Honor, the withdrawal was made by a legal counsel, and we will remove the said legal counsel,” explained Yohanes.

The panel instructed Yohanes to read the subject matter. Yohanes alleged the government involvement in securing election victory for the said candidate pair, including organizing government activities and mobilizing government apparatus, such as local government unit (SKPD), village heads, and village consultative body (BPD) for campaign purposes.

The Petitioner alleged the Southeast Minahasa acting regent and government officials abused their authority by influencing and intimidating other officials who voted for other candidate pairs.

“The Southeast Minahasa acting regent and the government officials abused their authority, influenced, intimidated and/or promised increased allowances to ensure officials sided with candidate pair 1, otherwise, they would be transferred and given no titles,” said Yohanes.

Furthermore, the Petitioner alleged that the Relevant Party engaged in covert meetings with local government units, exerting influence and potentially coercing civil servants, which constituted TSM violations that affected their vote count.

As such, the Petitioner requests the Court to order the Southeast Minahasa Regency KPU a revote by excluding candidate pair 1. The petitioner also wishes the Court to disqualify candidate pair 1 as they allegedly committed a serious violation involving government officials. (*)

Author           : Ahmad Sulthon Zainawi
Editor            : Lulu Anjarsari P.

PR                : Fauzan Febriyan
Translator     : Ryan Alfian/FS (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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