Benny Hutabarat, the Relevant Party’s legal counsel, at the examination hearing on the Bekasi regent election results dispute, Friday (1/17/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.
JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held an examination hearing to hear response from the Respondent (General Elections Commission/KPU), Relevant Party, and Bawaslu (Election Supervisory Agency) and to validate evidence submitted by the parties. The hearing for Case No. 222/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah on panel 1 on Friday, January 17, 2025.
The Bekasi City KPU (Respondent) challenged and refuted the arguments made by Heri Koswara dan Sholihin (Petitioners). They deemed the Petitioners’ arguments, for example on the violation of money politics committed by Candidate Pair 3 Tri Adhianto-Abdul Harris Bobihoe (Relevant Party), unfounded. Administrative violations is under Bawaslu’s authority, as regulated under Article 73, Article 135A, and Article 187A paragraph (1) of Law No. 10 of 2016 on Regional Elections and Bawaslu Regulation No. 9 of 2024 on the handling of administrative violations in the regional elections.
“The argument about Kartu Keren, the Respondent did not receive any recommendations from the Bekasi City Bawaslu. There were only the cards, but no reports,” said Asep Andryanto, the Respondent’s legal counsel.
The Respondent also asserted that the Petitioners had not met the petition filing threshold requirement of maximum 0.5%. In fact, the vote difference between the Petitioners and the Relevant Party was 7,079 votes (0.7%), and thus was over the threshold.
“Meanwhile, based on the aggregated population data of Bekasi City, the vote difference [to be eligible to file a petition] has to be at most 0.5% of the total valid votes at the final vote count or at most 4,881 votes from the acquirer of the most votes,” Asep revealed.
No Abuse of State Facilities
The Relevant Party’s legal counsel Benny Hutabarat refuted the Petitioners’ arguments on the abuse of state facilities. Hutabarat said that since the Relevant Party was named the Regent Candidate Pair for the 2024 election, they no longer served in the office, so the responsibility for the Instagram accounts of Margahayu and Jatikramat Villages should fall on the managers of the accounts.
“The Relevant Party has no authority in managing those accounts and there were no reports nor recommendations from the Bekasi Bawaslu regarding these arguments,” Hutabarat stated.
Ethics Violation
On behalf of the Bekasi City Bawaslu, Mohamad Sodikin mentioned that they had issued a recommendation in response to the Petitioners’ allegations of violation pertaining to a member of the Bekasi KPU who requested the Pondok Melati district election committee (PPK) to boost the votes for Candidate Pair 3.
“There was a recommendation on this matter, after which the Pondok Melati PPK was found to violate code of ethics. Thus, the matter was sent back to the KPU. There were also indications of the involvement of the polling station working committee (KPPS) at TPS 028, 029, and 030 in North Bekasi. [We issued] a recommendation for the North Bekasi district election supervisory committee (Panwascam) to terminate the eight people suspected be part of the [campaign] team of Candidate Pair 3,” Sodikin testified.
Also read: Heri-Sholihin Allege Money Politics in Bekasi Mayoral Election
At the preliminary hearing on January 8, 2025, Heri Koswara dan Sholihin (Petitioners) requested that the Court annul the Bekasi KPU Decree No. 886 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 mayoral election results dated December 6, 2024. The vote count results announced by the Bekasi KPU (Elections Commission) certified 452,351 votes for Candidate Pair 01 Heri Koswara–Sholihin, 64,509 votes for Candidate Pair 02 Uu Saiful Mikdar–Nurul Sumarheni, 459,430 votes for Candidate Pair 03 Tri Adhianto–Abdul Harris Bobihoe, with a total of 976,290 valid votes and 43,794 invalid votes. Thus, the valid and invalid votes added up to 1,020,084. The Petitioners believe that the vote acquisition of Candidate Pair 03 has violated the law in a structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) manner and has impaired democracy.
One of the alleged violations include “Kartu Keren” or “the cool card” worth Rp999,999 in balance for Bekasi residents to purchase food staple items or household needs at lower prices, distributed by Candidate Pair 03 during their campaign in Perwira Village of North Bekasi District on October 29, 2024. The card balance could be spent in the pair’s campaign events and the pair promised that if they won, the people could spend the remaining balance in the 12 districts of Bekasi City.
Moreover, the Petitioners argued the involvement of civil state apparatuses (ASN) and neighborhood/community unit (RT, RW) chiefs in the campaign of Candidate Pair 03. On November 1, 2024, they allegedly appropriated the official Instagram accounts of Margahayu Village, Jatikramat Village, and Mustikajaya family welfare movement (PKK) by having them like campaign posts on their Instagram account. There were also violations by a member of Bekasi City KPU Afif, who requested staff of Pondok Melati election committee to boost the pair’s votes. The staff followed upon this request and contacted the polling committee (PPS) via WhatsApp with a promise of Rp300,000 per committee member.
Read also:
The petition for Case No. 222/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025
Response by the KPU (Respondent)
Testimony of Bawaslu
Testimony of the Relevant Party
Author : Sri Pujianti
Editor : N. Rosi
Translator : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/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.
Friday, January 17, 2025 | 19:24 WIB 139