Legal counsel Ahmad Matdoan delivering a statement at the preliminary hearing of the Kaimana regent election results dispute before panel 2 judges, Wednesday (1/15/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Kaimana Regent Candidate Pair 2 Freddy Thie and Sobar Somat Puarada (Petitioners) argued that their vote acquisition of 14,907 votes (48.51%) was caused by violations by the Kaimana Regency KPU (Elections Commission, Respondent) as well as Candidate Pair 1 Hasan Achmad and Isak Waryensi (Relevant Party). Thus, at the preliminary hearing for Case No. 254/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the regent election results dispute, they asserted that disqualification or a revote would be justified. The hearing was presided over by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2 on Wednesday, January 15, 2025.

While delivering the subject matter, M. Iman Nasef as the Petitioners’ legal counsel stated that the verification of the Relevant Party as regent-vice regent candidate pair is legally flawed since they did not meet the 10% threshold of vote representation. The contribution of the National Mandate Party (PAN) should not be taken into account since the party did not issue a letter to notify the withdrawal of their endorsement for the Petitioners and the coalition by the deadline on September 4, 2024.

“The Petitioners never approved the withdrawal of PAN’s support for the Petitioners and never allowed it to be transferred to Candidate Pair 1,” Nasef revealed.

He also pointed out the Respondent’s inconsistency after the Kaimana Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) had held a closed-door meeting on September 14, 2024, which the Respondent and the Relevant Party attended, to sort out the Petitioners’ registration issue. Yet, following the meeting, the Kaimana KPU issued Decree No. 2485 of 2024 which in essence allowed the Relevant Party to run in the regent election supported by a coalition of PAN, Perindo (United Indonesia Party), the Labor Party, and Ummah Party.

“The Respondent should have been consistent by following the applicable provisions of the law,” Nasef argued.

Furthermore, he revealed the Respondent’s negligence in verifying the Relevant Party’s registration. Regent candidate Hasan Achmad turned out to have registered using an outdated ID card. Nasef showed this by pointing out Hasan’s domicile relocation data from Kaimana Regency to Bandung Regency.

“The Respondent did not carry out the administrative due diligence when accepting the registration documents of regent candidate Hasan Achmad. As a result, they missed the outdated ID card,” said Nasef.

For those arguments, the Petitioners requested that the Court disqualify the Relevant Party for not meeting the requirements as the 2024 Kaimana regent-vice regent candidates. At the same time, they requested the Court to declare them the elected Kaimana regent and vice regent.

The petition for Case No. 254/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 can be accessed here.

Author            : Ahmad Sulthon Zainawi
Editor             : N. Rosi
Translator       : 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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