The ruling hearing for case No. 108/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 PHPU on the South Buru regent election results dispute, Wednesday (2/5/2025). Photo by MKRI.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) dismissed the petition for Case No. 108/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 South Buru regent election results dispute, filed by Candidate Pair 3 Safitri Malik Soulisa-Hemfri Lesnussa (Petitioners). Chief Justice Suhartoyo delivered the verdict at a ruling hearing on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.

“On the petition’s subject matter, [the Court] declares the Petitioners’ petition inadmissible,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo at the ruling hearing along with the other eight constitutional justices.

In its legal considerations, delivered by Justice Enny Nurbaningsih, the Court noted the Petitioners’ allegation of the mix-up of valid votes and invalid votes by the South Buru Elections Commission (KPU) as the Respondent. However, the Petitioners did not specify the errors in the Respondent’s version of vote count recapitulation.

Justice Enny stated that the Petitioners merely claimed that the Respondent’s version of vote count recapitulation constituted the votes from each of the candidate pairs subtracted by the legitimate votes mixed with votes arising from violation at several polling stations. However, the laws and regulations only recognize the terms “valid votes” and “invalid votes.”

“The Petitioners should have been able to break down in detail the mechanism of vote discrepancies at each of the polling stations they disputed. Therefore, the section of the posita could not be understood, hence the Court could not ascertain the Petitioners’ arguments,” added Justice Enny.

The Court furthermore found a legal fact showing the conflict between the Petitioners’ petitum 3 and petitum 4. Thus, the Court could not grant such petitums, as it was impossible to declare a rectified election result and conduct both a recount and a revote.

“Therefore, the formulation of the petitums conflicted one another, thus causing the Petitioners’ petition to be vague or obscure,” Justice Enny emphasized.

Also read:

Illegitimate Vote Contamination Alleged in Buru Selatan Regency Election

Disputed Evidence Challenges Allegations of Missing Votes in South Buru Election

In the preliminary hearing on Monday, January 13, 2025, the Petitioners alleged that valid votes were combined with invalid votes in the South Buru Regency election. They identified violations affecting votes in at least 14 polling stations located in Leksula Village and Waemulang Village, Leksula District; Nanali Village, Pasir Putih Village, and Bala-bala Village, Kepala Madan District; and Labuang Village, Namrole District.

Author              : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                   : Tiara Agustina
Translator         : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/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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