The Petitioners legal counsel Fernando M. Ginuny (left) attending the preliminary hearing for Case No. 264/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the Sorong mayoral election result dispute, Thursday (1/16/2025) in panel 3 courtroom. Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Sorong mayor-vice mayor candidate pair 1 Petronela Kambuaya-Hermanto have filed a petition to the Constitutional Court (MK), requesting the annulment of the Sorong City KPU (Elections Commission) Decree No. 249 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 Sorong City mayor-vice mayor election results dated December 9, 2024. The Petitioners argue that structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) vote buying had influence voters.

Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat (panel chair), Anwar Usman, and Enny Nurbaningsih presided over the preliminary hearing for case No. 264/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 in panel 3 courtroom on January 16, 2025. Four candidate pairs contested in this election, with candidate pair 2 Septinus Lobat-Anshar Karim leading with 50,255 votes and the Petitioner in following along with 29,758 votes.

Jatir Yuda Marau, the Petitioners’ legal counsel, stated that the campaign team of candidate pair 2 had allegedly committed vote-buying on November 26, 2024 by distributing 200 cash rewards worth Rp200,000 at TPS (polling stations) 1 of Manalu. The Petitioners reported this violation to the Sorong City Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) on November 29, 2024.

However, the Sorong City Bawaslu dismissed the report, stating that the alleged actions did not constitute a legal violation. The Petitioners argued that violations are not solely limited to criminal offenses, emphasizing that any actions that favor or harm any candidate pair during an election should be considered a violation.

Vote buying violates Article 73 paragraph (1) of Law No. 10 of 2016 on the Second Amendment to Law No. 1 of 2015 on the Stipulation of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 1 of 2015 on the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors into Law (Pilkada Law). Article 73 paragraph (1) states, “Candidates and/or Campaign teams are prohibited from promising and/or giving money or other materials to influence Election Organizers and/or Voters.”

“When we registered the petition, Your Honors, this vote buying was under investigation. Until the revision of this petition, there has been a court decision with permanent legal force, Your Honors. There are four decisions proving that vote buying has favored candidate pair 2,” explained Marau in panel 3 courtroom.

“There are four [people] who were sentenced. In the trial, Your Honors, [it was revealed that the violations] were deliberately planned without including the campaign team, but there is a family relation with the person distributing the money. They gave the money in front of the house belonging to a relative of the vice regent [candidate] or the Relevant Party, Mr. Anshar Karim,” he continued.

Mass Mobilization

In addition, the Petitioners argued that the campaign team of candidate pair 2 had mobilized people who were unregistered in the final voters list (DPT). The Sorong City KPU also allowed these unregistered voters to vote by including them in the additional voters list (DPTb).

There was also manipulation of the DPT, with the attendance lists being signed by other people.

“The voters who were present will be matched to the DPT, and there should be attendance lists, Your Honors. However, from what we found in the plenary results, there was a DPT comprising 600 people only signed by three people using the same signatures,” Marau added.

“As a reference, we requested that the attendance lists in the ballot boxes be opened so we could match them, but these attendance lists were not disclosed, Your Honors. They only one-sidedly concluded that the comparison was the Respondent’s administrative duty,” he continued.

In the petitums, the Petitioners request the Court to annul the Sorong City KPU Decree No. 249 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 Sorong mayor-vice mayor election results dated December 9, 2024. The Petitioners also ask the Court to disqualify candidate pair 2 from the mayoral election.

“[We request the Court to] order the Sorong City KPU to do a revote in Sorong City by excluding candidate pair 2 Septinus Lobat and Anshar Karim,” explained legal counsel Fernando M. Ginuny.

Author              : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                     : Tiara Agustina
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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