Southeast Sulawesi Bawaslu chairman Iwan Rompo Banne at the examination hearing for the 2024 gubernatorial election case No. 249/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025, Wednesday (1/22/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

---

JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Southeast Sulawesi Provincial Elections Commission (KPU) highlighted the withdrawal letter by Vice Governor Candidate 4 La Ode Muh Ihsan Taufik Ridwan submitted to the Constitutional Court (MK) at the preliminary hearing on January 10, 2025. Thus, the KPU believes the petition for Case No. 249/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 has lost its legal standing because an election results dispute petition is filed collectively by a candidate pair.

“Since the Petitioners are a candidate pair, then when one of the parties withdraws the petition, mutatis mutandis, the Petitioners’ petition has lost its legal standing,” argued the Respondent’s legal counsel Sugiatno Migano at the examination hearing to hear the Respondent’s response and statements by the Relevant Party and the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.

Originally, the Petitioners of this case were Governor Candidate Pair 4 Tina Nur Alam and La Ode Muh Ihsan Taufik Ridwan. La Ode Muh Ihsan, who was present at the preliminary hearing, withdrew the petition. Meanwhile, through her legal counsel, Tina Nur Alam stated her wish to continue and was permitted to read her petitums.

Relevant Party Responds to Allegations in Kind

Meanwhile, Candidate Pair 2 Andi Sumangerukka and Hugua (Relevant Party) refuted the Petitioners’ allegations regarding the mobilization of the state civil apparatus (ASN) and the village heads. In return, the Relevant Party claimed that one of the Petitioners, who is the wife of the 2008-2017 Southeast Sulawesi governor Nur Alam, had mobilized ASN and village heads in supporting her children in the Kendari mayoral election and the South Konawe regent election.

“On the contrary, the Relevant Party is not an incumbent and have only followed the electoral contest in this election, so the [Petitioners’] argument is unfounded,” said the Relevant Party’s legal counsel Donal Fariz before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2.

The Relevant Party mentioned that even though Nur Alam was not registered in the campaign team, he had actively campaigned and gave instructions to the team. Nur Alam’s campaign narratives were allegedly hateful toward the Relevant Party’s ethnicity. The indication of hate speech relating to ethnicity, religion, race, and inter-group (SARA) was once examined and clarified by the Bawaslu, but not followed up further since Nur Alam was not registered.

Bawaslu Says Money Politics Report Ineligible

The Southeast Sulawesi Bawaslu chairperson Iwan Rompo Banne stated that Bawaslu had received a number of reports alleging vote buying or money politics. One of them was reported on November 14 regarding the distribution of money and campaign attributes from Anggolomoare village head to Lakomea village head. Upon finding elements of election crime violations, Bawaslu forwarded the report to the Southeast Sulawesi Province Police for follow-up investigation in accordance with the laws and regulations.

However, the Police stopped the investigation process because no suspect was found after 14 days of investigation. “Because within the 14 days of the investigation, no suspect was found, so the investigation was stopped due to expiry,” Iwan recounted.

Bawaslu forwarded the same recommendation, which in essence asserting an indication that the reported party had violated the principle of village head neutrality, to Konawe regent to be followed up according to the laws and regulations. However, as of today, Konawe regent has not submitted a follow-up to the recommendation.

Also read: SE. Sulawesi Vice Governor Candidate Withdraws Petition, Governor Candidate Proceeds

Author       : Mimi Kartika
Editor        : Tiara Agustina
PR            : Fauzan Febriyan
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.

---