The Respondent’s legal counsel Feince Poonis at the examination hearing for the 2024 Ternate mayoral election case No. 42/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 to hear the Respondent, the Relevant Party, and Bawaslu, Thursday (1/23/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held an examination hearing to hear the Respondent’s response and statements by the Relevant Party and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) and to validate evidence of the parties on Thursday, January 23, 2025. The hearing for the Ternate election results dispute case No. 42/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah on panel 1.

Regent Candidate Pair 2 Moh. Tauhid Soleman–Nasri Abubakar (Relevant Party) delivered their statement in response to the petition filed by Candidate Pair 4 Muhammad Syahril Abd. Radjak–Makmur Gamgulu (Petitioners). Through legal counsel Fahrudin Maloko, the Relevant Party argued the Ternate government programs disputed by the Petitioners, such as Ojek Andalan (motorcycle taxi) and Warung Mama (kiosks of household needs), had existed since 2021. Therefore, the Relevant Party believes the Petitioners’ claim was aimed at manipulating opinions and forming perceptions as if those programs had just been held around election.

The Relevant Party also denied having misappropriated the grant for community houses in Gorontalo.  Contrary to the Petitioners’ claim, the buildings had existed since 2011 and the government only aided the finishing stage. The Relevant Party stated that the Ternate Office of Public Works and Spatial Planning had finished the construction in 2024 on the request of Paguyuban Kerukunan Keluarga Gorontalo (Gorontalo family harmony association).

“So, the argument had no correlation nor causal relationship with the vote acquisition of the Relevant Party and the argument was merely an assumption without legal facts,” said Fahrudin on behalf of the Relevant Party.

Recommendation and Follow-Up

Speaking on behalf of the Ternate Bawaslu, Kifli Sahlan said the agency’s supervisory reports included a report on the mobilization and involvement of state civil apparatus (ASN). One incident reported on November 24, 2024 was further examined by the Integrated Law Enforcement (Gakkumdu) but it did not satisfy the criteria for election crime violations; thus, a recommendation was issued for the National Civil Service Agency (BKN). Kifli explained that there were three recommendations specifically pertaining to the violations of ASN neutrality and two election crimes that were ruled by the court.

“So, from the total recommendations submitted related to violations of ASN neutrality, there were three reports, while the other 10 were transferred to related parties. So, the difference between reports in the form of a recommendation and transferred reports is that violations that are related to election violations are handled with recommendations as outputs. If there is violation of ASN neutrality, the report is transferred,” explained Kifli.

Also read: Incumbent Ternate Mayor Candidate Accused of Exploiting Government State Civil Apparatus

At the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Ternate KPU Decree No. 409 of 2024 on the certification of the 2024 mayoral election results. The vote acquisition of each candidate pair according to the Respondent was as follows: Candidate Pair 1 Santrani M.S. Abusama-Bustamin S. Abdul Latif obtained 3,498 votes, Candidate Pair 2 Moh. Tauhid Soleman-Nasri Abubakar won 45,658 votes, Candidate Pair 3 Erwin Umar-Zulkifli Hi. Umar received 11,716 votes, and the Petitioners received 34,416 votes.

The Petitioners believe that Regent Candidate 2 Tauhid Soleman, who is an incumbent, had taken advantage of the power of the Ternate City ASN through local government programs three months before the election. The Ternate government also distributed assistance through departments, driven by the incumbent and regional secretary, while also attended by their campaign team. In fact, based on the Petitioners’ observation, events involving bureaucracy were very intensively performed in order to influence voters to vote for certain candidate pairs.

 

Also read:

Petition for Case No. 42/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025

Response by the Respondent

Statement by the Relevant Party

Statement by Bawaslu

 

Author            : Sri Pujianti
Editor             : N. Rosi
Translator      : Dinita Aktivia/FS (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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