Empty Column in Banjarbaru Mayor Election

Zainal Arifin Mochtar, The Petitioner’s expert delivered testimony at the hearing of Case No. 05/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 disputing the 2024 Banjarbaru mayor election results, Friday (2/7/2025) in the Constitutional Courtroom. Photo by MKRI/Bayu

JAKARTA, MKRI - Heru Widodo, the Relevant Party’s (Candidate Number 1 Lisa Halaby-Wartono) expert witness testifying in the evidentiary hearing of the dispute over the 2024 Banjarbaru mayor election results, case No.05/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025. The hearing was presided over by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat accompanied by Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman and Constitutional Justice Enny, Nurbaningsih on Friday, February 7, 2025.

Heru explained that the Banjarbaru City KPU disqualified the Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said Abdullah pair from participating in the 2024 Banjarbaru City mayoral election on October 31, 2024, the voting was held on November 27, 2024. The disqualification presented challenges in time and cost in the election process for the Banjarbaru City KPU (the Respondent).

The first issue was related to the issue of printing ballot papers featuring a pictorial column of candidate pair number 1, Lisa Halaby-Wartono, and a blank column. He also noted the issue of the ballot distribution time with empty columns, which he believes took time.

“Because in terms of cost, changing ballot papers requires reprinting the same number. In terms of time, reprinting ballot papers takes longer time, this could cause an exceed the time required for the day of the national simultaneous voting,” Heru stated.

The Banjarbaru City KPU (the Respondent) response is as follows: the procurement cost for the printing of the new ballot paper is Rp 21,101,912, the cost for sorting and folding the ballot papers is Rp40,180,600 and the setting, checking, and packing logistic is costing Rp4,836,000.

The Respondent in its response also attached a table regarding the time flow of ballot printing, which all took 13 days, as follows: it took 6 days for the ballot paper to be delivered, 11 days for the ballots to arrive at the Banjarbaru KPU warehouse, 2 days for sorting and folding, and lastly another 2 days for the logistics setting, checking, and packing.

Heru added that the Banjarbaru City KPU also has a time issue because there is a provision in Article 201 Paragraph (8) of Law Number 10 the Year 2016 on the Region Election Law. The article stipulates that regional head elections will be held simultaneously in November 2024.

“Under these conditions, it is not possible to reprint new ballot papers with a single candidate against an empty ballot box. In the event that the reprinting of ballot papers is predicted to exceed the deadline for simultaneous voting, the organizer or Respondent is constrained by the juridical basis to postpone or suspend the simultaneous voting,” Heru argues.

Heru's explanation was also corroborated by Khairul Fahmi, the Banjarbaru KPU’s expert. He added the explanation in Article 54C of the Election Law. Article 54C regulates five conditions to conduct a single candidate election against an empty column. However, those five conditions are not fulfilled, due to the limited time of less than 30 days.

This is because Khairul refers to Article 54 paragraph 1 of the Regional Election Law, which basically organizes that if a candidate for regional head or deputy regional head dies, a political party or a coalition of political parties can propose a replacement candidate no later than 30 days before the voting day. Meanwhile, the time remaining after the disqualification of Aditya Mufti Ariffin-Said Abdullah until the voting day is less than a month.

“In this norm, the deadline for replacing candidate pairs must be completed within 30 days before the voting day. The 30-day period is also in line with the deadline for determining the final voter's list (DPT), which is 30 days before the voting day in accordance with Article 60 of the Regional Election Law, stated Khairul.

In the end, the Banjarbaru City KPU was faced with two dilemmas, those dilemmas as follows: choosing to conduct an election that presents an empty column or choosing to follow KPU RI Decree No. 1774 of 2024 concerning technical guidelines for the implementation of voting and vote counting in the election of governors and deputy governors, regents and deputy regents, and mayors and deputy mayors.

KPU RI Decree No. 1774 of 2024 eventually became the Respondent's basis, which basically stated that the 2024 Banjarbaru City mayor election was participated by only one candidate pair. However, due to time and cost constraints, the image column of candidate pair number 2 remains, and those who vote for it are determined as invalid votes. The goal is so that the Banjarbaru City KPU is not considered to have violated the Regional Election Law regarding simultaneous voting in November 2024.

“So the obscurity (of the law) should be answered and to answer it, there is a choice. The choice is whether to hold the election with an empty box with the time available. There is also a norm in the law that then limits the organizer if there is a context of a disqualified candidate that within 30 days he is no longer followed up, it is also binding for them,” said Khairul.

“The purpose is that technical preparations ahead of polling day can be done optimally by election organizers,” continued the Faculty of Law lecturer at Andalas University.

Election Malpractice

The Petitioner in Case No. 05/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 is the Coordinator of the Nusantara Vision Study Institute, Muhamad Arifin. The Petitioner presented Titi Anggraini as an expert who refuted the arguments of the Respondent's and Relevant Parties' experts. According to him, it is not right if cost and time are used as reasons for not holding the 2024 Banjarbaru City mayor election in the matter of presenting an empty column.

This has become part of the consequences faced by the Banjarbaru City KPU as the organizer of the Banjarbaru City mayor election. Moreover, there is a provision in Article 54C paragraph (1), which regulates that elections with a single candidate and empty column can be held due to a disqualified candidate pair.

Titi also highlighted specifically in the provisions of Article 54C paragraph 1 letter e related to one of the conditions for holding the election of one candidate pair against an empty column, which reads, “e. there is a candidate pair that is subject to cancellation sanctions as a participant in the Election which results in only 1 (one) candidate pair.”

“Regarding the additional budget and technical burden that must be allocated by the election organizers, it is the implication of compliance to hold single-candidate elections as ordered by the Constitutional Court and the law,” continued Titi.

According to him, in the Banjarbaru mayoral election, there had been manipulation of regulation, voters, and voters' votes. The Constitutional Court should make corrections to what happened in Banjarbaru City. If there is no correction from the Constitutional Court, it will be seen as an omission of arbitrary power against the sovereignty of the people.

“Regional Election (Banjarbaru City) was only followed by one candidate pair without an empty column option as an expression of disapproval of a single candidate. Also, the coercion to count valid votes only against voters who vote for a single candidate can be considered as a form of electoral malpractice that occurs perfectly,” said Titi.

Eliminate People's Sovereignty

Another expert from the Petitioner was Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo who highlighted KPU RI Decree No. 1774 of 2024. The decision eliminates the sovereignty of the people to use their voting rights, in this case, the voters regulation who vote the image column of candidate pair number 2 becomes an invalid vote.

The Banjarbaru City KPU also violates the legal standing, because it overrides Article 54C paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Regional Election Law to present an empty column in the 2024 Banjarbaru mayoral election. The Respondent prefers KPU RI Decree No. 1774 Year 2024 to be the cornerstone, rather than Article 54C paragraphs (1) and (3) which have a higher legal standing.

“Furthermore, we must raise an issue with the KPU's decision in declaring the votes cast for disqualified candidates as invalid votes. This means that the KPU's decision is placed in a higher position than the commands of the Election Law and KPU Regulations themselves,” stated Bambang.

Bambang also disagreed with the time and cost reasons for presenting ballots that feature the candidate pair number 1 and empty columns. This is because the 2024 Banjarbaru mayoral election can be postponed by referring to the provisions of Article 431 paragraph (1) and Article 432 paragraph (1) of Law Number 7 Year 2017 on General Elections (Election Law).

The article is a form of regulation for run-off elections in anticipation of riots, security disturbances, and natural disasters. Including if there are other events or disturbances that can disrupt the stages of the election organization that are not accommodated in the three types of categories.

“The KPU does not need to sacrifice the voting rights of people who have exercised their voting rights correctly and the postponement of some stages does not interfere with the simultaneous elections. Because in fact in some areas affected by disasters also postponed the election and continued at a later date,” said Bambang.

“Of course, this choice poses a risk, but in my opinion, it is much better than forcing [the election] simultaneously, but instead it is sacrificing the voting rights of citizens who have exercised their rights correctly,” continued the Chairman of Bawaslu RI for the 2008-2012 period.

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Empty Column in Banjarbaru Mayor Election