Rais Kahar (Bawaslu) while providing testimony during the examination hearing for the 2024 South Halmahera regent election case No. 52/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) — As the Relevant Party, Hasan Ali Bassam Kasuba and Helmi Umar Muchsin denied having violated the restriction on official replacement within six months of candidate pair certification. In the preliminary hearing for Case No. 52/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025, Candidate Pair 2 Rusihan Jafar–Muhtar Sumaila (Petitioners) alleged that the Relevant Party, the incumbent regent of South Halmahera, had rotated or replaced and appointed 142 functional officials.

In the examination hearing held on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, the Relevant Party's legal counsel Hedi Hudaya explained that the 142 civil state apparatus (ASN) officials in dispute had been appointed outside of the restriction window; some even had been appointed by the previously sitting regent. Meanwhile, it was their inauguration that was announced in South Halmahera Statement Letter No. 005/2984/IX/2024 on September 20 and was held on September 23, 2024. The Relevant Party stated that the statement letter had been appropriated by the Petitioners to allege the violation, as the Regional Elections Law prohibited the appointment of government officials six months before an incumbent's end of term without the written approval from the Minister of Home Affairs. They argued that the letter was merely an invite to inauguration instead of a letter of appointment.

"Whereas the 142 functional officials who were inaugurated on September 23, 2024 were functional officials who had been previously appointed in their respective functional positions and had not been rotated or replaced as argued by the Petitioners," said Hedi Hudaya while reading a statement before the panel.

According to the Relevant Party, the appointment had been done outside of the restricted six-month period and therefore did not violate the provisions of the laws and regulations. Nevertheless, the delay between the issuance of the appointment letter and the inauguration was caused by issues in transition.

On the other hand, the South Halmahera Bawaslu Chairperson Rais Kahar reported that the Bawaslu had contacted the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) upon the information of the 142 functional officials. MoHA replied that such official inauguration could be done by regional heads because in principle, it did not result in position or structural changes.

In the panel 2 presided over by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani, Rais explained that "the replacement in question is a replacement of positions that used to be called structural or are now called managerial and non-managerial positions and the lowest ranks are administrator or supervisor ranks."

The South Halmahera Bawaslu received some reports on the indications of election violation regarding the termination of three village heads by the incumbent regent. Eventually, the reports were declared to be unproven since, according to Rais, the government officials replacement restriction does not apply to village heads.

KPU Denies Partiality

Moreover, the South Halmahera Elections Commission/KPU (Respondent) denied the arguments alleging that them as election organizers had not been neutral in the 2024 regent election. The Respondent refuted the Petitioners' arguments that the district election committee (PPK) was not neutral because it had been established by a member of the 2019-2024 KPU who later became a member of the campaign team for Candidate Pair 3 or the Relevant Party.

The Respondent insisted that Darmin Hi Hasyim, Yaret Coling, and Halik A Rajak, the three former members of KPU who joined the campaign team of Candidate Pair 3, were no longer involved in the organization of the 2024 regent election. Even though the ad hoc officers—the district election committee (PPK) and the polling committee (PPS)— were established in the 2019-2024 term, the Respondent argued that these officers were not subordinates of individuals, but followed the norms of the applicable election law.

"Throughout the 2024 election, the Respondent never found any information, citizen report, or recommendation from the South Halmahera Bawaslu pertaining to the of ad hoc [election] organizers under the Respondent who did not act professionally, violated the election organizer's code of conduct, or took actions that were partial to one of the candidate pair and thus harming the other candidate pairs," argued Hendra Kasim, the Respondent's legal counsel.

Author        : Mimi Kartika
Editor         : Tiara Agustina
Translator : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/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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