The Respondent’s legal counsel Frenkie Son Laku (right) at the examination hearing of the Manado mayoral election results dispute case No. 26/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025, Wednesday (1/22/2025). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.
JAKARTA (MKRI) — As the Relevant Party, Manado Mayor Candidate Pair 1 Andrei Angouw-Richard Hendri Marthen Sualang disputed the allegation of covert campaigns in the cheap market program on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. At the preliminary hearing, Candidate Pair 3 Jimmy Rimba Rogi-Kristo Ivan Ferno Lumentut (Petitioners) made claims of covert campaign in their petition for Case No. 26/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025. They alleged that the cheap market program had been held within six months of the certification of the election participants, thus could warrant disqualification from the Manado City mayoral election.
Steiven Bernadino Zeekeon, the legal counsel of the Relevant Party, argued that the petition requesting the disqualification of the Relevant Party is inappropriate and hasty. The Relevant Party delivered their statement at the examination hearing to hear the responses from the Respondent, Relevant Party, and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) and to validate evidence of the Parties on panel 3, presided over by Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat (panel chair), Anwar Usman, and Enny Nurbaningsih.
The Relevant Party argued that the cheap market program had been launched by Andrei Angouw as the 2021-2024 Manado mayor and not organized in the context of a campaign. In fact, they doubted that the Petitioners could indicate the form of campaign alleged to have taken place in that program.
Zeekeon also asserted that Andrei Angouw as mayor had never conducted any campaign in the cheap market program because at the time, the Manado KPU had not even certified the candidate pairs and they had not entered the campaign period yet.
“In fact, during the campaign, the Relevant Party period never visited the cheap market sites and carried out campaign activities, such the announcement of vision, mission, and programs, either through oral announcement directly to the community, invitations to vote, or dissemination of campaign materials,” he said.
Furthermore, the Relevant Party deemed the allegations of the campaign and market program locations being the same place fictitious, fabricated, and unfounded, since there were no rules prohibiting campaigns from being carried out in the vicinity of cheap market programs.
They also find it abstract and unfounded that the Petitioners argued conflict of interest between the interim mayor and Candidate Pair 1. Thus, the Relevant Party deemed the argument should be dismissed. The Petitioners did not attach supporting evidence and elaborate the concrete relationship between the conflict of interest and the vote acquisition.
“[The Petitioners] never even reported (the conflict of interest) to Bawaslu, if that was indeed an alleged election violation,” Zeekeon insisted.
No ASN or PPPK Mobilized
As the Respondent, the Manado City Elections Commission (KPU) stated that they were not authorized to address the allegations of the mobilization of the state civil apparatus (ASN) and contract-based government workers (PPPK) to support the Relevant Party. They argued that allegations related to the partiality of ASN and PPPK are the responsibility of the Manado Bawaslu.
The Respondent’s legal counsel Frenkie Son Laku conveyed that the Manado KPU had carried out all stages of the mayoral election according to the principles of direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair elections, including during the tiered recapitulation process from polling stations (TPS) to district and city levels.
“Disqualification of the Relevant Party, the Petitioners requested that Candidate Pair 1 be disqualified as a mayor-vice mayor candidate pair under the [Regional] Elections Law, [that Candidate Pair 1] is subject to annulment or disqualification. Whereas to achieve that [sanction], the burden of proof lies in the handling of election administration violations, which is the authority of Bawaslu upon receiving the report,” Frenkie stated.
Moreover, the Manado KPU had never received recommendations from other institutions related to the alleged partiality. Frenkie continued that in their petition the Petitioners did not mention the Respondent’s authority and the certification process of the election results at all levels.
“Likewise, of all the arguments in the petition, the Petitioners did not mention the violations that occurred at the polling stations at the time of polling and vote counting, therefore, until the completion of the plenary [session] at the city level, the Respondent never received any recommendations from the Manado Bawaslu,” Frenkie said.
The Manado Bawaslu chairperson Brilliant Johanes Maengko stated that Bawaslu had not received any reports or findings related to the election dispute. Bawaslu claimed to have supervised the open plenary meeting on the certification of the election results.
They also revealed to have received two reports on alleged violations relating to the cheap market program committed by Candidate Pair 1. However, the two reports could not be continued since they did not fulfill the criteria of misappropriation of authority, program, and activities that benefit or harm one of the candidate pairs.
Also read: Jimmy-Kristo Challenge Cheap Market Program by Manado Incumbent Mayor Candidate
Author : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor : Tiara Agustina
Translator : M. 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.
Wednesday, January 22, 2025 | 13:20 WIB 188