The ruling hearing for case No. 146/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Tarakan City mayoral election results dispute, Wednesday (2/5/2025). Photo by MKRI.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Constitutional Court (MK) ruled the petition for case No. 146/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Tarakan City mayoral election results dispute inadmissible. The petition was filed by the Indonesian Human Rights Analysis Institute as an election observer. The Court believed that the 2024 Tarakan City mayoral election results dispute was vague or unclear.

“On the petition’s subject matter, [the Court] declares the Petitioners’ petition inadmissible,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo at the ruling hearing alongside the other eight constitutional justices on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.

Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra explained that the petition failed to meet the formal requirements of the petition. Thus, the Court declared the petition unclear, vague, or obscuur libel.

“[The petition] did not fulfill the formal requirements of the petition, therefore the Court did not hesitate to declare the above petition unclear or vague or obscuur,” explained Deputy Chief Justice Saldi.

The Court received a withdrawal request from a party claiming to be the same organization/institution. However, other parties listed in this petition file persisted in submitting the Tarakan mayoral election results dispute.

“There was a petition submitted and suddenly another person claiming to be the organization withdrew it. We want to know the first person who submitted the petition,” said Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra at the preliminary hearing on Thursday, January 9, 2025, which he presided over alongside Constitutional Justice Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani.

In the petition, Ambo Tuwo as the chairperson of the Indonesian Human Rights Analysis Institute was the Petitioner. He authorized Muklis and Angga Bursa Lesmana, who attended the preliminary hearing, to continue with the petition. The Petitioner did not read out the petition at the preliminary hearing, but the Court heard the Respondent, the Relevant Party, and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) at the examination hearing.

The Petitioner requested the Court to declare a blank vote the winner of the 2024 Tarakan mayoral election. The Petitioner suspected candidate pair Khairul and Ibnu Saud of committing various violations such as reshuffling state civil apparatus (ASN) six months before registering as a participant in the election.

Author              : Mimi Kartika
Editor               : Tiara Agustina
Translator         : Syifa Amelia/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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