Muhammad Alfy Pratama (second left) as the Respondent's legal counsel at the examination hearing, Case No.07/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 concerning the 2024 Banjarbaru City Mayor Election Results Dispute, on Monday (1/20/2025). Photo by MKRI/Bayu

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JAKARTA, MKRI - The General Election Commission (KPU) of Banjarbaru City questioned the position of the Mingguraya Bangku Panjang  Academy Institution as the Petitioners in the Dispute over the 2024 Banjarbaru City Mayor Election Results case Number 07/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025. This is because the Mingguraya Academy is not registered as an election observer in Banjarbaru City.

The examination hearing of case No.07/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 which was scheduled to hear the Respondent’s response and testimonies by the Relevant Party and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body), as well as the Endorsement of Evidence, was presided over by Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat (panel chair), Anwar Usman, and Enny Nurbaningsih on panel 3. Banjarbaru City KPU legal counsel (the Respondent), Muhammad Alfy Pratama, stated that the Millennial Democracy Forum was the only election monitor registered and accredited by the Banjarbaru City KPU.

“The Millennial Democracy Forum has never filed an objection or report to the Election Supervisory Board regarding the Respondent's performance in organizing the regional head and deputy regional head elections for Banjarbaru City in 2024,” Alfy argued.

The Relevant Party's legal counsel, Eko Saputra, said that his party's request was also the same as the Petition Case No. 05/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025. The Relevant Party is Lisa Halaby-Wartono who is the single candidate pair in the 2024 Banjarbaru Mayor Election.

“What is different, maybe regarding that when there is a re-election in Banjarbaru, we may ask as a Relevant Party, which is to separate the invalid votes from the disqualified candidate pair votes,” said Eko.

Meanwhile, The statement of the General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) of Banjarbaru City was not filed directly. This was because Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat considered the content of the answer to the petition to be the same as in the Petition for case No.05/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025, 06/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025, and 09/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025.

For information, Hamdan Eko Benyamine, Hudan Nur, Zepi Al Ayubi, and Sani Firly are residents of Banjarbaru City who are members of the Mingguraya Bangku Panjang Academy Institution.  The Mingguraya Bangku Panjang Academy Institution is the petitioner who filed a petition for the absence of an empty column in the 2024 Banjarbaru City Mayor Election.

The Petitioner considers that the Banjarbaru City KPU as the Respondent committed violations in a structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) manner for not presenting an empty column on the ballot paper. The KPU of Banjarbaru City is considered to have deliberately ignored Article 54C Paragraph 2 of the Regional Election Law. “The election of 1 (one) candidate pair is conducted using a ballot paper containing two columns consisting of 1 (one) column containing a photo of the candidate pair and 1 (one) blank column without a picture.”

Author  : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor   : Tiara Agustina
Translator     : Dinita Aktivia/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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