The Petitioners’ legal counsel Ahmad Suardi (center) attending the ruling hearing for case No. 07/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Banjarbaru mayoral election results dispute, Tuesday (2/4/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) dismissed the petition for case No. 07/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Banjarbaru mayoral election results dispute. The Petitioners are Eko Benyamine, Hudan Nur, Zepi Al Ayubi, and Sani Firly, who are Banjarbaru City residents. Chief Justice Suhartoyo delivered the ruling in alongside the other eight constitutional justices in the plenary courtroom on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

“On the petition’s subject matter, [the Court] declares the Petitioners’ petition inadmissible,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo delivering the verdict.

Reading the legal considerations, Justice Enny Nurbaningsih outlined that the Court considered the qualifications of election observers as stipulated in the provisions of Article 157 paragraph (4) of Law No. 10 of 2016 (Regional Election Law) and Article 4 paragraph (1) of Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) No. 3 of 2024. The Petitioners were not election observers in the 2024 Banjarbaru mayoral election. Thus, the Respondent and the Relevant Party’s exceptions, which essentially stated that the Petitioners did not have legal standing to file the petition, were reasonable according to law.

“As the Court has considered above, the legal standing requirement pertaining to the Petitioners’ qualifications for filing the regional election results dispute, and the Court found no sufficiently strong and convincing reasons to disregard this requirement,” Justice Enny explained.

Also read:

Petitioners Request Blank Vote Declared as Banjarbaru City Election Winner

Banjarbaru KPU Questions the Legal Standing of Mingguraya Bangku Panjang Academy

Hamdan Eko Benyamine, Hudan Nur, Zepi Al Ayubi, and Sani Firly are residents of Banjarbaru City and members of the Mingguraya Long Bench Academy who filed a petition objecting to the absence of a blank vote in the Banjarbaru City mayoral election. The Petitioners felt deprived of their rights due to the unavailability of the blank vote, which they believe should have existed.

The Petitioners regarded efforts that tended to favor one particular candidate pair as systematic violations. These efforts began with the registration of the candidate pairs on August 27-29, 2024, the disqualification of Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said Abdullah on October 31, 2024, and the failure to reprint ballot papers, which resulted in the ballots where Candidate Pair Number 2 were marked being considered invalid votes.

Author               : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                    : Tiara Agustina
Translator         : Ryan Alfian/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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