Court Dismisses Yanni-Jemmi's Petition on Sarmi Regent Election Results Due to 30 Percent Vote Margin
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The Petitioners’ legal counsel Mellisa Anggraini attending the ruling hearing for Case No.155/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the Sarmi regent election results dispute, Wednesday (2/5/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.


JAKARTA (MKRI) — On Wednesday, February 5, 2025, the Constitutional Court (MK) dismissed the petition for case No. 155/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Sarmi regent election results dispute. The ruling hearing was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo alongside the other eight constitutional justices in the plenary courtroom.

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

In its legal consideration, delivered by Constitutional Justice Guntur Hamzah, the Court explained the legal standing of the Petitioners, regent-vice regent candidate pair 2 (Yanni and Jemmi Esau Maban). According to Article 158 of Law No. 10 of 2016, to file a petition, the vote margin between the Petitioners and the candidate pair with the most votes must not exceed 2 percent.

However, the Petitioner obtained 6,802 votes, while the Relevant Party, candidate pair 1 (Dominggus Catue and Jumriati) obtained 13,521 votes, so the vote margin between the two was 6,719 votes (or 30 percent), thus exceeding the threshold.

Hence, the Petitioners did not have legal standing to file a petition for election results dispute.

“The Petitioners have no legal standing to file the a quo petition,” asserted Justice M. Guntur Hamzah.

The Court was also unable to override the provision of Article 158 as the Petitioners’ argument failed to convince the Court. Regarding the alleged discrimination and ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup (SARA) issues, the Court did not find any special incident from those arguments.

“As such, on the a quo petition, [the Court] sees no reason to override the provision of Article 158 of Law 10 of 2016 concerning the Petitioners’ legal standing,” explained Justice Guntur.

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At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioners argued some issues in the 2024 Sarmi regent election. There was the alleged involvement of the state civil apparatus (ASN) connected to the position of the Relevant Party and several money politics practices violations, the money that was distributed to the public was in varying nominal amounts, ranging from Rp 100 thousand to Rp 300 thousand. There was also the issue of ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup (SARA) that was allegedly conducted by the Relevant Party.

The Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Sarmi Regency KPU Decree concerning the certification of recapitulation of the 2024 Sarmi Regency election results; to certify the Petitioners as the elected candidate; and to order the Sarmi Regency KPU to release the election certification decree. The Petitioners also requested the Court to order the Sarmi Regency KPU to do revote at all polling stations throughout the Sarmi Regency.

Author       : Ashri Fadilla.

Editor        : N. Rosi
Translator  : Ryan Alfian/FS (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.

 


Wednesday, February 05, 2025 | 11:03 WIB 14