Kadar Kristian Wau (left), Suryantara (right), the Respondent’s legal counsels, at the examination hearing on the South Nias regent election results dispute, Monday (1/20/205). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held an examination hearing to hear the responses from the Respondent, Relevant Party, and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Agency) and to validate evidence of the litigants. The hearing for Case No. 288/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 was presided over by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Anwar Usman and Enny Nurbaningsih on panel 3 on Monday, January 20, 2025.

The South Nias Elections Commission/KPU (Respondent) delivered their response to the petition filed by Idealisman Dachi-Foluaha Bidaya or Idefol (Petitioners) on the 2024 South Nias regent election results dispute. The Respondent’s legal counsel stated that the diploma of Regent Candidate 1 Sokhiatulo Laila had met the requirements for his candidacy application.

The South Nias Regency KPU claimed to have conducted administrative research related to the educational requirements in accordance with the KPU Decree No. 1359 of 2024 on the amendment to KPU Decree No. 1229 of 2024 on the technical guidelines for registration, examination of the administrative requirements of candidates, and the certification of candidate pairs in the regional elections.

“The Respondent reported that Sokhiatulo Laia has submitted a GED diploma equivalent to high school diploma in social sciences for the Academic Year 2014/2015 with the legalization from the Pekanbaru City Education Office,” Suryantara said.

In addition, the South Nias KPU also responded to the Petitioners’ argument that 600 votes had allegedly been added to Candidate Pair 4 in Ambukha and Hilikara Villages. The Respondent denied such an argument on the ground that the voters had indeed voted for Candidate Pair 4 based on the minute, certificate, and record of vote count recapitulation at the polling stations (TPS) in Ambukha Village.

The same applied to Hilikara Village, where Candidate Pair 4 had acquired the most votes at two polling stations. Suryantara also explained, no incident form on vote inflation had been filed at the two polling stations.

“There was no objection from the witnesses of the four candidate pairs, no objection form, and according to the Respondent, the election went smoothly. Thus, the Respondent believes there was no vote inflation or vote purge,” Suryantara added.

The legal counsel of Candidate Pair 1 Sokhiatulo Laia-Yusuf Nache (Relevant Party) Hasaziduhu Moho also denied the allegations of Sokhiatulo Laia’s fake diploma. He reported that Sokhiatulo Laia used the GED diploma issued by Bina Education Community Learning Center (PKBM) No. DN-09 PC 0004176 dated May 15, 2015, as one of the candidacy requirement documents.

The diploma does not violate Article 7 of Law No. 6 of 2020 on the Stipulation of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 2 of 2020 of the Third Amendment to Law No. 1 of 2015 on the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors into Law. Hasadizuhu said that it was in accordance with Article 18 paragraph (3) of Law No. 20 of 2003 on the National Education System.

“With regard to the alleged fake diploma, we declare it untrue. The diploma submitted by the Relevant Party was obtained from rightful means,” Hasaziduhu asserted.

Meanwhile, a member of the South Nias Regency Bawaslu Yosua Buulolo said they had issued notice on the four reports in the period of September 23 to December 5, 2024 related to the allegedly fake diploma of Sokhiatulo Laia.

“All of the reports reported to Bawaslu on the fake diploma, all of them were unproven,” Yosua recounted.

He also commented on the Petitioners’ petition arguing vote inflation and purge in Ambukha and Hilikara Villages. He explained that there had been no objections about inflation nor vote recapitulation according to the supervision of the district supervisory committee (Panwascam).

There were indeed objections about vote inflation in TPS 1 and 2 of Ambukha Village filed by the witnesses of Candidate Pair 3 at the district-level plenary meeting. However, the reports were not followed up, as witnesses did not attach evidence of alleged vote inflation.

“Well, there was indeed an incident in which 100 percent of the voters voted for one candidate pair,” Yosua explained.

Also read: Idefol Questioned Over Alleged Fake Diploma in South Nias Regent Election

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioners had previously alleged the use of a fake diploma by Candidate Regent 1 Sokhiatulo Laia. This is indicated by a Ged diploma equivalent to SMA (public high school) Pekanbaru, which was used when registering as a candidate for the Pelalawan Regency DPRD (Legislative Council) in 2024. The second is the Bina Edukasi PKBM GED certificate, which was used for his candidacy in the South Nias regent election.

The Petitioners also argued that there had been vote inflation, so that Candidate Pair Number 4 Fajarius Laia-Sifaoita Buulolo received 31,494 votes. In fact, according to the Petitioners, the pair should have won 30,894 votes.

Author               : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor                : Tiara Agustina
PR                     : Tiara Agustina
Translator         : Muhammad 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.

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