Bawaslu, represented by Jonsen Situmorang, testified at the examination hearing for Case No. 214/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the regent election results dispute before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2, Friday (1/24/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Samosir Regency KPU (Elections Commission) as Respondent denied the petition filed by Candidate Pair 01 Freddy Lamhot P. Situmorang-Andreas Bolivi Simbolon on the difference in votes between the Petitioners and Candidate Pair 02 Vandiko Tomotius Gultom-Ariston Tua Sidauruk (Relevant Party) due to the buying of C6 or C-notification KWK forms.

The rebuttal was delivered at the examination hearing to hear the Respondent, the Relevant Party, Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body), and to approve evidence from the parties for Case No. 214/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2 on Friday, January 24, 2025.

On behalf of the Respondent, Josua Victor explained that the argument about a purchase of the C-notification KWK forms, which had allegedly caused a decrease in the Petitioners’ votes, was fictitious. He said that the C-result forms at the polling stations show the majority of votes at TPS 02 Nainggolan Village were for the Petitioners. Moreover, the voting process at TPS 02 Nainggolan Village went smoothly without any objections from the Petitioners’ witnesses regarding the Petitioners’ argument.

“Quod non the arguments alleged by the Petitioners were true, the Petitioners should have reported it to the authorities,” Victor asserted.

Therefore, the Respondent requested that the Court reject the Petitioners’ petition in its entirety and affirm the validity of the Respondent’s decree on the certification of the 2024 Samosir Regency election results.

Besides, the Relevant Party, represented by legal counsel Parulian Siregar, denied the Petitioners’ argument that the Petitioners’ votes had decreased at TPS 02 Nainggolan Village due to the purchase of the C6 forms. Siregar argued that the argument was not true because the Petitioners’ valid votes at TPS 02 Nainggolan Village were greater than the Relevant Party’s.

“The Petitioners obtained 129 votes while the Relevant Party 120 votes,” he revealed.

Therefore, the Relevant Party requested that the Court reject the Petitioners’ petition in its entirety and affirm the validity and legal binding force of the Respondent’s decree on the certification of the 2024 Samosir Regency election results.

Meanwhile, the Samosir Regency Bawaslu, represented by Jonsen Situmorang, testified on the aforementioned argument, arguing that the Samosir Regency Bawaslu had not received any reports and/or findings of election violations and election dispute petition.

Also read: Lamhot-Simbolon Argue Vote Buying in Samosir Regent Election

Samosir regent candidate pair 1 Freddy Lamhot P. Situmorang-Andreas Bolivi Simbolon (Lamhot-Simbolon) objected to their vote difference with candidate pair 2 Vandiko Tomotius Gultom dan Ariston Tua Sidauruk (Vadiko-Aris) in the Samosir regent-vice regent election. The Petitioners suspected the buying of C6 forms at polling stations.

As such, in the petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to order the Samosir Regency KPU to do a revote at all polling stations in Samosir Regency by excluding Vandiko-Aris and to disqualify Vandiko-Aris from the election.

Author         : Ahmad Sulthon Zainawi
Editor          : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR              : Fauzan Febriyan
Translator    : Syifa Amelia/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.

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