The ruling hearing for case No. 88/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Pagar Alam mayoral election results dispute in the plenary courtroom on Tuesday (2/4/2025). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – On Tuesday, February 4, 2025, the Constitutional Court (MK) ruled the petition for case No. 88/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Pagar Alam mayoral election results dispute inadmissible. The ruling hearing was chaired by Chief Justice Suhartoyo and eight other constitutional justices.

Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat who read out the Court’s legal consideration stated that the vote difference between the Petitioners and the most-voted candidate pair–at a maximum of 2% multiplied by 92,441 votes (total valid votes) was 1,849 votes.

"The Petitioners’ vote acquisition was 29,538 votes, while the Relevant Party's (the most-voted candidate pair) was 33,672 votes, indicating that the difference in vote acquisition between the Petitioners and the Relevant Party was 33,672 votes minus 29,538 votes, which is 4,134 votes (4.5%) or more than 1,849 votes," added Constitutional Justice Arief.

The Court holds that, despite the Petitioners being candidate pair 1, they do not meet the requirements to file a petition as stipulated in Article 158 paragraph (2) letter a of Law 10/2016. Furthermore, for the a quo petition, the Court found no special incidents or events related to the case. Consequently, the Court concludes that the Petitioners lack the legal standing to apply. Therefore, the exceptions raised by the Respondent and the Relevant Party are legally valid.

"Based on the entire explanation of the legal considerations, the Petitioners’ petition fails to fulfill the provisions of Article 158 paragraph (2) letter a of Law 10/2016 concerning legal standing. Even if the provisions are postponed in their validity, quod non, it has been proven that the main petitions of the Petitioners are legally unfounded," stated Constitutional Justice Arief.

The Court also highlighted double voters, mentioning the Pagar Alam City Bawaslu (election supervisory body) had received the report and had pursued it further.

Also read:

Allegations of Final Voter List Manipulation in Pagar Alam Mayoral Election

KPU: No Recommendation in Pagar Alam Mayoral Election

The Petitioners requested the annulment of the certification of the 2024 Pagar Alam mayoral election results announced by the Pagar Alam City KPU (elections commission) as Respondent. Based on the recapitulation results, Candidate Pair Hepy Safriani-Efsi received 29,538 votes, Candidate Pair 02 Alpian-Alfikriansyah obtained 29,231 votes, while Candidate Pair 03 Ludi Oliansyah-Bertha reached 33,672 votes. They highlighted the difference of 4,134 votes with the most-voted pair and suspected that there had been structured, systematic, and massive violations.

The Petitioners argued that the violations had occurred before election day, during voting, and after vote counting. The alleged violations included manipulation of the voter list and disorganization in the voting process. They also submitted the jurisprudence of the Court Decree No. 16/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 as the legal basis for the Court had ordered a revote at several polling stations due to alleged double voters.

Author: Utami Argawati
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR: Tiara Agustina
Translator: Syifa Amelia/FS

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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