The Respondent's legal counsel Dodi Irama at the examination hearing for the 2024 Banyuasin regent election case No. 25/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 to hear the Respondent, the Relevant Party, and Bawaslu, Tuesday (1/21/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Banyuasin Regency Elections Commission (KPU) presented their counterclaim on money politics or vote buying, as alleged by the Petitioners of Case No. 25/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/202 on the 2024 Banyuasin regent election results dispute. In the case filed by Candidate Pair 2 Slamet and Alfi Novtriansyah Rustam (Petitioners), the Banyuasin KPU is the Respondent while Candidate Pair 1 Askolani and Neta Indian is the Relevant Party.

The Constitutional Court (MK) held an examination hearing to hear the Respondent’s response and testimonies by the Relevant Party and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) and to validate evidence of the parties on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. The hearing for the case was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah on panel 1.

On behalf of the Respondent, legal counsel M. Arya Aditya argued there was inconsistency on the locations of the alleged vote buying. “[The Petitioners] argued vote buying in 12 districts. Afterwards, they also argued [vote buying] in all of the districts,” Arya said.

The Respondent believes that arguments of vote buying should not be filed in a case to be resolved by the Court. Instead, they believe that the allegation should be addressed by Bawaslu.

The Respondent revealed that the Petitioners had attempted to complain about the matter to the Banyuasin Bawaslu, to no avail. “The Petitioners also had made reports on November 26 and 27, and on those reports, there were notifications from the Banyuasin Bawaslu stating that the reports were discontinued for lack of evidence,” Arya said.

The Relevant Party conveyed similar points to those of the Respondent. They deemed the money politics alleged by the Petitioners unfounded because they were not followed up by the Banyuasin Bawaslu. The Relevant Party also believe any issue of structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) vote buying should be addressed by Bawaslu instead of the Constitutional Court.

“Any petition on TSM [violations] falls under the authority of Bawaslu. The [Banyuasin] Bawaslu had issued a decree in response to those reports,” argued Dodi Irama, the Relevant Party’s legal counsel.

Based on their response and statement, the Respondent and the Relevant Party requested the Court to affirm the validity of the vote acquisition in Banyuasin KPU Decree No. 2564 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 Banyuasin regent election results.

Reports on Vote Buying

Meanwhile, the Banyuasin Bawaslu as testifier assured that they had never issued any recommendation based on the reports of vote buying in the regent election. Throughout the phases of the election, they received three reports on violations at 12 polling stations, but none of them could be addressed due to the lack of concrete proof.

“The three reports submitted were discontinued due to insufficient proof, Your Honors. From the 12 [polling stations], there were three reports. [The reports] could not be addressed,” explained Ameradi, a member of the Banyuasin Bawaslu.

Also read: Vote-Buying in Banyuasin Regent Election Questioned

In their petition, the Petitioners rejected the Respondent’s vote recapitulation results due to findings of violations, which includes alleged vote-buying by the Relevant Party. The Petitioners alleged that the vote-buying was conducted in a structured and tiered manner from the regency to the polling station levels. Furthermore, they suspected the massive vote-buying had employed field electoral coordinators, witnesses, and volunteers.

As such, in the petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Banyuasin KPU decree on the certification of 2024 Banyuasin regent election results. They also asked the Court to order the Respondent to do a revote and disqualify the other candidate pair.

Also read:

The Petition for Case No. 25/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025

Response by the Respondent

Statement by Bawaslu

Statement by the Relevant Party

Author               : Ashri Fadilla
Editor                : N. Rosi
Translator         : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

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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