The Petitioner’s legal counsel M. Andzar Amar at the ruling hearing for case No. 09/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the Banjarbaru mayoral election results dispute, Tuesday (02/04/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Constitutional Court (MK) dismissed the petition for Case No. 09/PHPU.WAKO-XXII/2025 filed by Said Abdullah on the Banjarbaru mayoral election results dispute on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 in the plenary courtroom. The decision was read out at the ruling hearing presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo alongside the other eight constitutional justices.

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

Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat asserted that, after carefully reviewing the petition, the Petitioner had identified himself as a vice regent candidate in the election. However, the Petitioner submitted the petition without including the mayor candidate as part of Candidate Pair 02, as determined by the Respondent.

“The legal facts were consistently acknowledged by the Petitioner in his petition, where from the legal standing section to the petitums, the Petitioner did not question at all the interests of the mayor candidate of Candidate Pair 02, but only described his own interests as a vice mayor candidate. The Petitioner believed that he could be a participant in the election without including the mayor candidate, whose participation had been canceled by the Respondent. In this regard, as the Court has explained above, the Petitioner’s qualifications as an ‘election participant’ must be interpreted and applied as a ‘candidate pair,’ meaning as a single pair consisting of both mayor and vice mayor candidates, as determined as election participants,” said Justice Arief.

Justice Arief further stated that the petition submission should be carried out by both the regional head candidate and their deputy as a candidate pair. Although the Petitioner questioned one aspect of the Respondent’s decision regarding his disqualification, in order to have legal standing, he could not submit the petition without including the mayor candidate. This is because all legal interests related to the results of the regional election, including the allocation of voter support, are attached to the candidate pair as election participants, not to the regional head candidates individually.

With these considerations, although the Petitioner requested that the Court override or postpone the validity of the formal requirements regarding the Petitioner’s legal standing, the Court emphasized that the legal standing requirement is crucial for the Petitioner’s qualifications in filing the petition. Furthermore, the Court did not find strong and convincing reasons to justify setting aside this requirement.

“Based on the legal considerations above, the Court finds that the Respondent’s and the Relevant Party’s exceptions regarding the Petitioner’s legal standing were legally justified. Therefore, the Petitioner did not have the legal standing to file the a quo petition,” said Justice Arief.

Since the Petitioner did not have the legal standing to file the a quo petition, the Court did not consider the petition’s subject matter, the exceptions raised by the Respondent and Relevant Party, or any other matters, as they were deemed irrelevant.

Also read:

Said Abdullah Requests the Court to Revoke His Candidacy in Banjarbaru Mayoral Election

Banjarbaru Elections Commission: Petitioners Not Qualified for Election Results Dispute

At the previous hearing, the 2024 Banjarbaru vice mayor candidate 02 Said Abdullah filed the petition on the city’s election result dispute to the Court.

At the hearing presided over by Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat, Enny Nurbaningsih, and Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh, the Petitioner’s legal counsel stated that during the campaign, the Respondent had disqualified the Petitioner for violating the election administrative regulation. The Respondent later issued Decree No. 124 of 2024 on the disqualification of Muhammad Aditya Mufti Ariffin and Said Abdullah as the 2024 Banjarbaru mayor-vice mayoral candidates dated October 31, 2024.

Author              : Utami Argawati
Editor                : Fitri Yuliana
PR                    : Tiara Agustina
Translator         : Nazila Rikhusshuba/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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