The Petitioners’ petition Sabaruddin Salatun at the ruling hearing for Case No. 109/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the Banggai Islands regent election results dispute. Photo by MKRI/Ifa

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Constitutional Court (MK) dismissed the petition filed by Candidate Pair 4 Sugianto-Hery Ludong. The ruling hearing for petition No. 109/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Banggai Islands regent election results dispute was held on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.

In its legal considerations, delivered by Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman, the Court stated that the a quo petition did not provide sufficient grounds to override Article 158 of Law No. 10 of 2016 regarding the Petitioners’ legal standing. The Petitioners failed to meet the requirements for filing a petition under Article 158 of the Regional Election Law. Additionally, the Court did not find any exceptional circumstances or special incidents..

Justice Anwar mentioned that the Petitioners’ vote acquisition was 22,048 votes. Meanwhile, the Relevant Party as the most-voted candidate pair received 24,894 votes.

"Thus, the vote margin between the Petitioners and the Relevant Party is 24,894 votes minus 22,048 votes is 2,846 votes (4.071%) or more than 1,400 votes," said Justice Anwar.

Referring to the above legal consideration, the Court argued that despite the Petitioners being candidate pair in the 2024 Banggai Islands regent election, they failed to meet the requirements to file a petition as stipulated in Article 158 paragraph (2) letter b of Regional Election Law No. 10 of 2016. The Petitioners did not have legal standing to file the a quo petition. Therefore, the Respondent’s and the Relevant Party’s exceptions that the Petitioners had no legal standing are legally justified.

In addition, the Court considered the argument that voters were rejected when they were going to vote. To this, the Petitioners submitted 16 people’s ID cards and/or family cards, who, according to the Petitioners, were rejected by the KPPS (polling station working committee) to vote. The Court believed this evidence was completely irrelevant to the argument submitted by the Petitioners because it did not prove that the KPPS rejected voters to vote. However, regarding the Petitioners’ argument, it turned out that there was no supervision results report or findings from Banggai Island Bawaslu (election supervisory body).

Hence, the Court believed that the a quo petition was not legally justified. Thus, the violations revealed by the Petitioners have been pursued further and Bawaslu considers it was not an election crime. “Based on the above legal consideration, the Court believed that the a quo petition is not legally justified,” asserted Justice Anwar.

Also read:

Discrimination, Use of State Facilities in Banggai Islands Election Questioned

Banggai Islands KPU, Bawaslu: State Facilities Abuse Not Proven

The case had been originally petitioned by Regent Candidate Pair 4 Sugianto and Hery Ludong. The Petitioners’ legal counsel Harli Muin explained that KPPS had not allowed voters supporting the Petitioners to exercise their voting rights because they did not bring their ID cards. Meanwhile, the KPPS at other polling stations allowed voters supporting Candidate Pair 01 Rusli Moidadi-Serfi Kambey to cast their vote even though they did not bring their ID cards and population biodata. The Petitioners also stated that Rusli Moidadi and Serfi Kambey had utilized state facilities in their campaign with the assistance of members of the Central Sulawesi Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD).

Author: Utami Argawati

Editor: Lulu Anjarsari

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.

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