Legal counsel presenting at the ruling hearing for Case No. 96/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Lamandau regent election results dispute, Monday (02/24/2025). Photo by MKRI/Panji

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Constitutional Court (MK) rejected the petition for Case No. 96/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Lamandau regent election results dispute filed by Candidate Pair 1 Hendra Lesmana-Budiman. The Court explained that the Petitioners’ petition regarding the violations in 25 polling stations was unproven and did not influence the 2024 Lamandau regent election vote turnout, so the Petitioners’ petition was legally unreasonable.

“On the Petitioners’ subject matter, [the Court] rejects the Petitioners’ petition in its entirety,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo alongside eight other constitutional justices at the ruling hearing on Monday, February 24, 2025.

In its legal consideration, delivered by Constitutional Justice Arsul Sani, the Court explained that the Petitioners’ claims regarding violations at 25 polling stations—including those in Nanga Bulik Village (Bulik District), Jangkar Prima Village (Sematu Raya District), Mekar Mulya Village (Sematu Raya District), Kujan Village (Bulik District), Bayat Village (Belantikan Raya District), and Karang Mas Village (Batang Kawa District)—were not proven. Consequently, the Court declared the Petitioners' claims legally groundless.

For instance, regarding the alleged violation at polling station 01 Nanga Bulik Village, Bulik District, after the Court reviewed the evidence presented, there was a special incident report concerning a mistake in the ballot counting, where the number of valid and invalid votes did not align with the total number of ballots used. The error was corrected at the polling station level, and the Petitioners’ witnesses also signed the model C-Result KWK Regent form. Therefore, the Petitioners’ argument could not be substantiated.

Regarding the alleged violation at polling station 03 Nanga Bulik Village, Bulik District, the evidence submitted by the Petitioners, including the C-Results KWK Regent and C Additional Voter Attendance List-KWK, only provided information about one damaged or incorrectly marked ballot and the presence of additional voters. However, this evidence failed to show that the Petitioners’ ballot, which was declared invalid due to a large hole and a small tear outside the candidate pair's ballot box, was in violation. They also presented photographic evidence of the ballot, showing a large hole and a small tear.

However, the Court concluded that the evidence lacked clear information regarding the location of the polling station or the actual incident that occurred, making it insufficient for the Court to support the argument. Additionally, the Head of the KPPS (polling station working committee) had shown the ballots to the polling station’s supervisor and witnesses from both candidate pairs, and they declared the ballots invalid. Furthermore, the Petitioners’ witnesses signed the C-Results KWK Regent. Thus, the Court found that the Petitioners’ argument was unproven and insufficient to convince the Court that violations occurred to affect the vote results.

The Court also explained that no violations occurred to affect the vote results at polling station 04 and polling station 20 in Nanga Bulik Village, Bulik District. The Lamandau KPU conducted an evaluation, issuing a verbal warning to Rellyta Hanimah, the polling station 04 KPPS officer, and a warning letter to Andi Chandra, the polling station 20 KPPS officer, for violating neutrality and the code of ethics for election organizers, as identified in the Lamandau Bawaslu's (Election Supervisory Body) review.

Further, the Petitioners failed to provide a detailed description of the meeting between the Head of Lamandau Bawaslu and the Head of Candidate Pair 2’s campaign team on October 7, 2024, and did not present any sufficient evidence, either through witnesses or documents. As a result, the argument was merely an assumption and failed to be used to allege the partiality of the Head of Lamandau Bawaslu. Therefore, the Court declared the Petitioners’ argument legally groundless.

“Following the entire legal consideration above, the Court declares that the Petitioners’ petition is legally groundless in its entirety,” said Constitutional Justice Arsul Sani

Also read:

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Due to Small Vote Margin, Evidence on Voting Manipulation in Lamandau Examined

This petition meets the threshold requirement for the difference in votes as certified by Law No. 10 of 2016 concerning Regional Head Elections to file the Lamandau regent election results dispute at the Court. The vote discrepancy between the Petitioners and the Relevant Party was 1,115 votes. This was below the threshold of 1,128 votes calculated based on 2 percent of the total valid votes of 56,395 votes.

The Petitioners are Candidate Pair 1 Hendra Lesmana-Budiman. Meanwhile, Candidate Pair 2 Rizky Aditya Putra-Abdul Hamid as the Relevant Party. In their petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Lamandau Regency KPU Decree No. 812 on the certification of the 2024 election results of the Lamandau regent-vice regent dated December 4, 2024 as it pertained to the votes at the 25 polling stations mentioned by the Petitioners. They also requested the Court to order the Lamandau KPU to do a revote at the said polling stations.

Author : Mimi Kartika
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Humas : Fauzan Febriyan
Translator : Syifa Amelia/FS

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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