The Petitioners’ legal counsel Yandri Sudarso at the ruling hearing for case No. 233/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Sula Islands election results dispute, Wednesday (2/5/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — On Wednesday, February 5, 2025, the Constitutional Court (MK) ruled the petition for case No. 233/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Sula Islands regent election results dispute inadmissible. This case was filed by regent-vice regent candidate pair 3 Hendrata Theis and Muhammad Natsir Sangadji. Chief Justice Suhartoyo presided over the ruling hearing in the plenary courtroom alongside the other eight constitutional justices.

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

The Court found that the Petitioners’ petition did not meet formal requirements. “As such, the Court declared the Petitioners’ petition obscured,” asserted Chief Justice Suhartoyo.

Therefore, the Court would not further consider the Petitioners’ subject matter, the Respondent’s response, the Relevant Party’s statement, Sula Bawaslu’s (Elections Supervisory Body) statement, and declared the petition dismissed.

Also read:

Civil Servants’ Role in Sula Islands Election Questioned

Examining the Neutrality of ASN and Village Heads in the Sula Islands Election

In the petition, the Petitioners alleged involvement by state civil apparatus (ASN), Sula Islands Regency Government officials, and village officials in campaigning for the Relevant Party. The Petitioners also presented evidence of 17 instances of vote buying across nearly all districts in the regency on November 26-27, 2024. The amount ranged from Rp500,000 to Rp8.5 million.

In their petitums, the Petitioners request the Court to annul the Sula Islands Regency KPU (Elections Commission) decree on the certification of the 2024 Sula Islands Regency election results. The Petitioners also wished the Court would order the Sula Islands Regency KPU to conduct a revote at all polling stations.

Author               : Ashri Fadilla
Editor                : N. Rosi
Translator         : Ryan Alfian/Yuniar Widiastuti (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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