The ruling hearing for case No. 296/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Panial regent election results dispute in the plenary courtroom on Wednesday (2/5/2025). Photo by MKRI.
JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Constitutional Court (MK) ruled the petition for case No. 296/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 filed by Candidate Pair 4 Thomas Yeimo-Yeri Adii on the 2024 Paniai regent election results dispute inadmissible. The Court saw no reason to override Article 158 of Law on the Regional Election Law as formal requirements to file an election results dispute.
“In the petition’s subject matter, [The Court] dismisses the Petitioners’ petition,” stated Chief Justice Suhartoyo alongside the other eight constitutional justices at the ruling hearing on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.
In its legal consideration, delivered by Constitutional Justice Arsul Sani, the Court explained that any special incident that could be considered to have harmed the implementation of the 2024 Paniai regent election, which could be used as a reason to override Article 158 was not found. The Court considered it irrelevant to continue the a quo petition to the evidentiary hearing.
"The Court believes that regarding the a quo petition, there is no reason to disregard the provisions of Article 158 of Law 10/2016 relating to the legal standing of the Petitioners as a formal requirement in filing a petition," explained Justice Arsul.
He further continued, the Court argued that despite the Petitioners serving as candidate pair, they do not fulfill the requirements for filing a petition as stipulated in Article 158 of the Regional Election Law. Therefore, according to the Court, the Petitioners do not have any legal standing to file the a quo petition.
Arsul explained that Article 158 of the Regional Election Law regulates the vote margin threshold between the Petitioners and the Relevant Party (the most-voted candidate pair) that can be disputed at the Court. For the 2024 Paniai regent election results dispute, the vote margin of 2 percent of the total votes from the final vote count certified by the Paniai KPU (Elections Commission), as such 2 percent of 115,424 votes, is 2,309 votes.
Meanwhile, the Petitioners’ vote acquisition was 23,490 votes and the most-voted candidate pair was 54,763 votes, which means the vote margin was 31,273 votes or equivalent to 27.1 percent. Thus, it exceeds the threshold. Even if these provisions were met, quod non, it has been proven that the Petitioners’ main arguments of the petition are legally groundless.
At the preliminary hearing on January 13, 2025, the Petitioners alleged the Chair and Members of Paniai Regency KPU (Elections Commission) of conducting bribery amounting to Rp200 million. However, it was denied by Paniai KPU as the Respondent at the examination hearing on January 22, 2025. The Paniai KPU stated that none of the chair and the members of KPU were arrested by the police under the bribery violation as alleged by the Petitioners.
In their petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Paniai KPU Decree No. 48 of 2024 on the certification of the Paniai regent election vote acquisition dated December 14, 2024, and to certify the correct vote acquisition as follows: candidate pair 1 Yan Piet Nawipa-Ham Yogi with 23,082 votes, candidate pair 2 Rooby Kayame-Hengki Kudiai with 17,395 votes, candidate pair 3 Nason Uti-Jhon Deki Yogi with 43,364 votes, candidate pair 4 Thomas Yeimo-Yeri Adii with 18,271 votes, and candidate pair 5 Ottopianus Gobai-Deki Nawipa with 7,316 votes. Alternatively, they requested the Court to order the Paniai KPU to do a revote across all polling stations, villages, and districts in the regency.
Author : Mimi Kartika
Editor : Tiara Agustina
Translator : Syifa Amelia/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 | 15:06 WIB 16