The Petitioners’ legal counsel at the ruling hearing for case No. 48/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Tulang Bawang regent election results dispute, Tuesday (2/4/2025). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) declared the petition for Case No. 48/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 filed by Candidate Pair Number 3 Hendriwansyah and Danial Anwar inadmissible. This is because the Petitioners’ arguments were not legally reasonable, so there was no reason for the Court to override the provisions on the vote margin threshold in Article 158 of Law No. 10 of 2016 concerning Regional Elections.

“On the petition’s subject matter, [the Court] declares the Petitioners’ petition inadmissible,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo at the ruling hearing alongside eight other constitutional justices on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

In its legal consideration, delivered by Constitutional Justice Ridwan Mansyur, the Court explained that the Petitioners did not have legal standing to file the petition because they did not fulfill the provisions for filing a petition under Article 158 of the Regional Election Law. The Court also did not find any incidents that could be considered to have harmed the implementation of the 2024 Tulang Bawang regent election, which could be used as a reason to override Article 158.

“There is no reason for the Petitioners to delay the implementation of Article 158 of Law No. 10 of 2016,” Justice Ridwan stated. Therefore, the Court considers it irrelevant to continue the a quo petition to evidentiary hearing.

The vote margin between the Petitioners and the winning candidates in the 2024 Tulang Bawang regent election, which would allow the Petitioners to file a dispute, must not have exceeded 2,908 votes or 1.5 percent of the total valid votes certified by the Tulang Bawang Regency KPU (Elections Commission), which amount to 193,871 votes. The Petitioners received 51,334, while the Relevant Party secured 94,061 votes. Consequently, the difference in their vote acquisition was 42,727 votes (94,061-51,334), equivalent to 22 percent. Since this exceeded the 1.5 percent threshold, the Petitioners did not meet the requirement to dispute the election results.

Justice Ridwan said that the Court was not convinced of the validity of the Petitioners’ main arguments. Previously, the Petitioners argued that there had been nepotism in the appointment of officials from family relations, misuse of local government programs, and the involvement of the interim regent of Tulang Bawang and other state civil apparatus (ASN) to win Candidate Pair Number 2 Qudrotul Ikhwan and Hankam Hasan as the Relevant Party.

Also read:

Nepotism and Program Misappropriation in Tulang Bawang Challenged

Qudrotul-Hankam Denies Involvement of State Civil Apparatus in Tulang Bawang Regent Election Campaign

The Petitioners requested for the annulment of the Tulang Bawang Regency KPU Decree No. 865 of 2024 in conjunction with the Tulang Bawang Regency KPU Decree No. 866 of 2024 concerning the certification of the 2024 Tulang Bawang regent election results. They also requested the Court to disqualify Candidate Pair Qudrotul Ikhwan and Hankam Hasan as participants in the 2024 Tulang Bawang regent election and ordered the Tulang Bawang KPU to conduct a revote at all polling stations in Tulang Bawang Regency without Candidate Pair Qudrotul Ikhwan and Hankam Hasan.

Also read:

Petition for Case No. 48/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025

Response by Respondent
Statement by Bawaslu
Statement by Relevant Party

Author               : Mimi Kartika
Editor                : N. Rosi
Translator         : Dinita Aktivia/Yuniar Widiastuti (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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