Muh. Salman Darwis (second from right), the Respondent’s legal counsel, at the examination hearing of the Banjarbaru election case No. 05/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025, Monday (1/20). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.
JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Banjarbaru City Elections Commission (KPU) admitted to feeling concerned about the mayoral election after Candidate Pair 2 Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said Abdullah was disqualified as an election participant. The provisions of Article 54C paragraph (1) in the Regional Election Law governing the election of one candidate pair and a blank vote did not provide a solution after the pair was disqualified.
The examination hearing to hear the Respondent’s response and testimonies by the Relevant Party and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) for Case No. 05/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 was presided over by Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat (panel chair), Enny Nurbaningsih, and Anwar Usman on panel 3 on Monday, January 20, 2025. The Banjarbaru KPU (Respondent) through its legal counsel Muh. Salman Darwis mentioned the Respondent’s concerns over five things.
“First, what if the disqualification had happened more or less 20 days before the voting. Second, what the status of the printed ballots would be. Third, whether or not the vote for a candidate pair who has been disqualified mutatis mutandis is equivalent to voting for a blank vote. Fourth, whether votes on the ballot of a candidate pair who has been disqualified can be declared as invalid votes. Finally, whether it is possible for the Respondent to delay the voting schedule,” Salman explained before the panel.
Furthermore, Salman said it would take at least three months for the KPU of Banjarbaru City to print and distribute the new ballots with a blank vote. Aside from the fact that the budget needed for the process can reach Rp251 million, the Banjarbaru City KPU, he said, had no legal basis to delay the voting schedule. In Articles 120 and 121 of Regional Election Law, the option to postpone the voting is possible through two mechanisms, namely delayed voting and follow-up voting, as a result of riots, security disturbances, natural disasters, or other disturbances that have implications so that some stages of the elections cannot be implemented and that the voting is held no later than 10 days after the scheduled voting on November 27, 2024.
“As for the printing of the ballots, it was not an instrument or a reason for the Respondent to delay the voting schedule,” Salman said.
Upon meeting these concerns, the Banjarbaru City KPU consulted the South Kalimantan KPU and the Central KPU. Then, on November 23, 2024, the Central KPU issued Decree No. 1774 of 2024 on the technical guidelines for polling and vote counting in the elections of governor and vice governor, regent and vice regent, and mayor and vice mayor. “[The decree] in essence stated that the votes of a disqualified candidate pair were to be declared invalid votes,” Salman stated.
In addition, the Respondent rejected the Petitioner’s request that the invalid be counted for the blank vote. From the beginning, the Banjarbaru mayoral election had never presented a blank vote and the voters were not in a position to get the option.
The Respondent also denied the Petitioner’s claim that the Banjarbaru KPU had eliminated the people’s right to vote. They insisted never eliminating the Banjarbaru people’s rights to vote. “Because the voters came to the polling stations, we served [them], then [they] entered and exercised their right to vote,” Salman argued.
Meanwhile, the Relevant Party’s legal counsel Azhar Ridhanie said that the Petitioner merely assumed that the 78,736 invalid votes had originated from voters who wanted to vote for a blank vote. A similar claim could be made by the Relevant Party.
Azhar also gave a statement in response to the Petitioner’s request for the invalid votes to be converted into the votes for the blank vote. “Ruling the invalid votes as valid votes of the blank vote and handing over the implementation of the Banjarbaru City [election] to the Central KPU, of course, the Relevant Party will also feel very disadvantaged, Your Honors, and [the Relevant Party] will ask for the constitutional justice in which the Relevant Party has been lawfully named as the winner by the Respondent. This also means that the constitutional rights of citizens who have elected the Relevant Party need to be considered and protected,” Azhar demanded.
A member of the Banjarbaru City Bawaslu Bahrani said that they had received a report numbered 005/PL/PW/RI/00 on December 3, 2024, which questioned the vote cast on the image of Candidate Pair 2 as an illegitimate vote. The Banjarbaru Bawaslu conducted a preliminary study related to reports claiming the restriction on the people’s rights to vote. However, on December 9, 2024, the Bawaslu did not register the report, because the complainant did not conduct the necessary fixes and did not satisfy the material requirements.
However, the Banjarbaru Bawaslu still carried out supervision on the existence of a column printed with the image of Candidate Pair 2. “Then, we also conducted direct supervision by coordinating with the Banjarbaru KPU,” Bahrani reported.
Also read: Nusantara Vision Study Institute Requests Empty Box Option in Banjarbaru Revote
Initially, there had been two candidate pairs competing in the Banjarbaru mayoral election, namely Lisa Halaby-Wartono (Candidate Pair 1) and Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said Abdullah (Candidate Pair 2). On October 31, 2024, the Banjarbaru City KPU disqualified Candidate Pair 2, who were suspected of violating administrative violations of Article 71 paragraph (3) in conjunction with paragraph (5) of the Regional Election Law.
The disqualification was announced in the Banjarbaru KPU Letter No. 747/PL.02.3-SD/6372/2024. Despite this cancellation, they did not create a blank vote. Instead, the picture of Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said was put on the ballots and ballots for them were considered invalid. As a result, Lisa Halaby-Wartono gained 36,135 votes while the invalid votes reached 78,736.
Author : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor : Tiara Agustina
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.
Monday, January 20, 2025 | 18:02 WIB 215