The KPU’s (Respondent) legal counsel Akmaluddin Rachim (center) at the examination hearing for Case No. 06/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the Banjarbaru mayoral election results dispute, Monday (1/20/205). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Banjarbaru KPU (Election Commission) refuted all arguments presented by candidate pair Udiansyah and Abd. Karim on the 2024 Banjarbaru mayoral election results dispute hearing held at the plenary courtroom on Monday, January 20, 2025.

The Banjarbaru KPU's legal counsel, Akmaluddin Rachim, stated at the hearing—presided over by Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat (panel chair), Anwar Usman, and Enny Nurbaningsih—that the Petitioners lacked legal standing to file the petition. "The Petitioners’ allegations of election violations are not supported by clear arguments," he asserted. Akmaluddin further noted that the main points of the petition closely resembled those in Case No. 05/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025. "In conclusion, we reject all of the Petitioners’ arguments," he emphasized.

In its written statement, the Banjarbaru KPU highlighted that Decree No. 124 of 2024, issued on October 31, 2024, annulled the disqualification of the candidate pair Muhammad Aditya Mufti Ariffin and Said Abdullah in the mayoral election. The decision was officially communicated to the Petitioners through Adam Maulana on November 1, 2024.

According to the KPU, the disqualification of Candidate Pair 01 was due to their proven administrative election violations, as stipulated in Article 71 paragraphs (3) and (5) of the Regional Head Election Law. However, following the disqualification, the KPU encountered technical challenges concerning the vote count mechanism.

The Banjarbaru KPU stated that reprinting ballots already distributed to all polling stations (TPS) in Banjarbaru City lacked a solid legal basis. To date, the Banjarbaru KPU has not received any guidance from the Central KPU or the South Kalimantan KPU regarding ballot reprinting.

The KPU argued that reprinting ballots with a revised format—featuring one column for candidate pairs and one blank column (for disagree)—could potentially delay the voting process indefinitely. Additionally, this approach risks wasting the state budget and infringing on the public’s voting rights.

Bawaslu’s Actions and Coordination with KPU

Banjarbaru Bawaslu member Bahrani testified at the hearing that Bawaslu had received and followed up on the submitted report. The recommendation was forwarded to the South Kalimantan KPU for further action. Subsequently, the South Kalimantan KPU and Banjarbaru KPU coordinated with the provincial Bawaslu on October 30, 2024, to clarify the elements outlined in the issued recommendations.

"The ballots used during voting and counting still featured two candidate pairs. As stated by the Banjarbaru KPU, they are awaiting further instructions, coordination, and consultation from their superiors," he explained.

As a preventive measure, the Banjarbaru Bawaslu issued Appeal Letter No. 058/PM.00.02/K.KS-12/11/2024 on November 14, 2024, requesting the Banjarbaru KPU to ensure that campaign props (APK) in public facilities are properly arranged in coordination with the local government.

In coordination, the Banjarbaru KPU stated that they were still awaiting further instructions from the provincial KPU and the central KPU regarding the use of ballots printed with two candidate pairs, despite one of the pairs being disqualified. On November 23, 2024, following the issuance of technical instructions for voting and vote counting, Bawaslu again coordinated efforts for voter dissemination at polling stations.

Meanwhile, the Relevant Party, represented by legal counsel Anas Malik, stated that the Petitioners were registered voters in the election. "So [they are part of] the Banjarbaru community who have the right to vote," he stated.

Regarding the Petitioners’ legal standing, Anas explained that, based on testimony from Aswanto (expert), who stated that since the Petitioners in the a quo case were individual citizens and not election participants, they did not meet the requirements to submit a petition to the Court.

Denny Indrayana, the Petitioners' legal counsel for Case No. 06/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025, explained that the Banjarbaru mayoral election was initially contested by two candidate pairs: Lisa Halaby-Wartono (01) and Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said Abdullah (02). However, after Candidate Pair 02 was disqualified by the KPU, only Candidate Pair 01 remained. According to the Regional Election Law, if only one candidate pair remains, the election must proceed in a single candidate pair format with an empty column.

However, the Banjarbaru KPU continued to print ballots that included photos and serial numbers for both candidate pairs, even though Candidate Pair 02 had been disqualified. As a result, any votes cast for Candidate Pair 02 were declared invalid. Based on the vote count, only 31.5% of the votes were deemed valid, while 68.5% were considered invalid.

Denny asserted that the Banjarbaru mayoral election violated the constitutional right to vote, as it eliminated the option to vote for an empty column in the case of a single candidate pair. He emphasized that there should be improvements in future regional elections in 2025 or a revote that implements a single candidate pair format against an empty column with supervision by the Central KPU.

Therefore, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Banjarbaru KPU Decree No. 191 of 2024, on the certification of the 2024 Banjarbaru mayoral election vote count recapitulation dated December 2, 2024, at 10:00 PM WITA. They also requested the Court to certify the correct vote acquisition results as stated in the Decree, with Candidate Pair 01 receiving 36,135 votes and the Empty Column receiving 78,736 votes, totaling 114,871 valid votes. Finally, they requested the Court to instruct the Central KPU to take over the re-election process for the 2025 Banjarbaru mayor election, repeating all stages of the election.

Author  : Utami Argawati
Editor   : Fitrai Yuliana
PR : Tiara Agustina
Translator     : Nazila Rikhusshuba/FS (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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