Mustakim Algozali and Ikhsan Kanaha as the Petitioner’s legal counsel at the Preliminary Hearing of Case Number 19/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 regarding the General Election Results Dispute of Morotai Island Regency. Photo by MKRI/Ifa

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JAKARTA, MKRI - The Constitutional Court (MK) held the first hearing of the General Election Results Dispute (PHPU) of the Regent and Deputy Regent of Morotai Island Regency with Petition Case Number 19/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at the Constitutional Courtroom. The hearing was conducted in front of Panel of Justice 1 presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo, accompanied by Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and Constitutional Justice M. Guntur Hamzah.

The Petitioner is the Candidate Pair Number 2 of Regent and Vice Regent of Morotai Island Syamsuddin Banjo and Judi Robert Efendis Dadana. The Respondent is the General Election Commission (KPU) of Morotai Island Regency and the Relevant Party is the Candidate Pair Number 3 Rusli Sibua and Rio Christian Pawane.

The Petitioner argued several things in its petition, including the alleged falsification of identity, specifically the Employment column on the Identity Card (KTP). This falsification was done by the Relevant Party, namely Regent Candidate Number 3 to participate in the 2024 Morotai Islands Regent Elections.

“[In order] To circumvent the requirement of resignation as a State Civil Apparatus (ASN), candidate pair number 3 is indicated to have falsified documents by making a new ID Card (KTP) dated August 19, 2024 with a entrepreneur as the occupation,” said the Petitioner’s legal counsel Mustakim Algozali.

According to the Petitioner, the status of the Relevant Party who is still an active State Civil Apparatus (ASN) should not have been ratified as a Candidate for The Regent by the Respondent. The ASN status, said the Petitioner, is listed on the bkn.go.id page which was legalized by the Head of BKN (National Civil Service Agency) of the Morotai Islands Regency.

In addition to the identity card and ASN status issues, the Petitioner also argued about the Relevant Party who was said to be a debt insurer. This was stated in the Tobelo District Court Decision Number 28/Pdt.G/2012/PN.Tbl juncto the Supreme Court Cassation Decision Number 1688 K/Pdt/2014.

“Rusli Sibua is sanctioned to pay compensation for the losses in the amount of Rp 92,529,141,027,” stated Mustakim.

Regarding these findings, the Petitioner claimed to have reported the issues to the Morotai Islands Regency Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the State Administrative High Court (PTUN). However, the report was not accepted.

Therefore, the Petitioner filed a petition to the Constitutional Court and requested that the Panel of Justices cancel the Decree of the Morotai Island Regency KPU Number 101 of 2024 concerning the Certification of the Results of the 2024 Regent Election of Morotai Island. The Petitioner also requested the Panel to disqualify the Relevant Parties and order the General Election Committee (KPU) RI to take over re-voting for the entire election area of Morotai Island Regency without the participation of Candidate Pair Number 3, Rusli Sibua and Rio Christian Pawane, within a maximum of one month after this decision is enacted.

Read Also: The Petition Case Number 19/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025

Author       : Ashri Fadilla.
Editor        : N. Rosi
Translators   : Dinita Aktivia/FS

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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