Batam Elections Commission: TSM Violations Alleged by Nuryanto-Hardi Unclear

The Respondent and their legal counsel Anjar Nawan Yusky Eko Prastyo at the examination hearing on the Batam regent election results dispute, Monday (1/20/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

JAKARTA, (MKRI) — Batam City Elections Commission/KPU (Respondent) through its legal counsel, Anjar Nawar Yusky Eko Prasetyo, denied any structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations in the Batam mayoral election as argued by the Nuryanto-Hardi (Petitioners). The response was delivered in the examination hearing of Case No. 169/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on Monday (20/01/2025) at the Constitutional Court (MK), Jakarta. The hearing was held in Panel 2 presided over by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani. Th examination hearing to hear the responses from the Respondent, Relevant Party, and Election Supervisory Agency and to validate evidence of the Parties

Arya argued that the Petitioners' claims regarding structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations in the Batam Regent Election were unclear (obscuur). He pointed out that, while the Petitioners alleged TSM violations in all districts of Batam City, they only requested a revote in eight districts. Additionally, Arya stated that the Petitioners failed to specify the locations or provide detailed information about the alleged TSM violations.

“The Petitioners’ petition is increasingly ambiguous and unclear because it did not elaborate why some polling stations or some 1,436 polling stations should be re-voted? Meanwhile, it was clearly stated in Article 135A paragraph (1) of the Regional Elections Law that by massive, it means that the impact of the violation is very wide on the election results [as a whole], not only in part," Arya argued.

Arya also claimed that the Petitioners were in the wrong for alleging the Respondent for the support/partiality of the state apparatus. He clarified that follow-up on violation indications is the responsibility of the Batam Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), not the Respondent. In fact, the Batam Bawaslu had never issued a recommendation or decision regarding the Petitioners’ arguments.

“Up to the election day and until the issuance of the certification of the 2024 Batam mayoral election results, there was no recommendation and/or decision from Bawaslu regarding the election administration sanctions related to the incidents alleged by the Petitioners,” Arya said.

Therefore, Arya denied the Petitioners’ arguments in relation to the TSM violations, one of which was the involvement or partiality of the state apparatus. Thus, the Respondent in their petitums requested the Court to reject the Petitioners’ petition in its entirety and declare the Respondent’s decree on the 2024 mayoral election results to be valid and still applicable.

Similarly, the Relevant Party through their legal counsel Denny Indrayana conveyed that the violations argued by the Petitioners basically did not meet the elements of TSM as stipulated in some of the Court jurisprudence, one of which is the Constitutional Court Decision No. 45/PHPU.D-VIII/2010. Denny argued that according to the a quo decision, a TSM violation is preceded by the preparation and planning from the beginning; composed of the involvement from the highest to the lowest level of government (neighborhood unit); and occurs in all of the districts in the city or regency and impacts on the overall results.

“These elements were not fulfilled and in fact, the petition constructed is over-claimed” Denny insisted.

Thus, the Relevant Party in their petitums requested the Court to reject the Petitioner’s petition in its entirety and declare the Respondent’s decree on the certification of the 2024 Batam mayoral election results to be valid and legally binding.

State Apparatus Involvement

The Batam Bawaslu represented by Jazuli said that there was indeed the abuse of the civil state apparatus (ASN) position to benefit and support the Relevant Party. In their statement, the Batam Bawaslu said there was one ASN officer, a village head, who gathered a cadre of the community clinic (Posyandu) and disseminated the profiles of the Candidate Pairs while emphasizing on the Relevant Party.

Jazuli revealed that the state civil apparatus in question has been reported to the National Civil Service Agency (BKN). However, BKN has yet to respond to the report.

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Batam Elections Commission: TSM Violations Alleged by Nuryanto-Hardi Unclear