Legal Counsel of the Petitioner, Yayan Septiadi (center), captures a moment with a selfie after attending the ruling hearing on the 2024 General Election Results Dispute (PHPU) for the Regent and Deputy Regent of Buru Regency, Monday (5/5/2025) at the Constitutional Court. Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA, (MKRI) – The Constitutional Court has dismissed the petition regarding the 2024 General Election Results for Regent and Deputy Regent of Buru Regency. The decision was announced during a hearing held in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court in Jakarta on Monday, 5 May 2025. The hearing was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo and attended by eight other constitutional justices.

In the legal considerations of Case Number 314/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025, as delivered by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, the Court found that the petition did not meet the formal requirements, as it was deemed unclear or vague (obscuur).

'The petition cannot be accepted as it fails to meet the requirements stipulated in Article 8 paragraph (3) letter b numbers 4 and 5 of Constitutional Court Regulation Number 3 of 2024,' stated Chief Justice Suhartoyo when delivering the decision.

The Petitioner requested the annulment of Buru Regency KPU Decree Number 57 of 2025, specifically concerning the vote count results at Polling Station 2 in Debowae Village, Waelata Subdistrict, and Polling Station 19 in Namlea Village, Namlea Subdistrict.

However, the Court found that the petition lacked a complete petitum. The Petitioner only requested the annulment of the vote results without proposing subsequent legal remedies such as a re-vote or a ballot recount. The Court held that such an omission could potentially deprive voters at the affected polling stations of their right to vote.

In addition, the Court identified redundancy in petitum number 5, where the Petitioner repeated the results of the revote at Polling Station 02 in Debowae Village. This duplication created ambiguity regarding the Petitioner’s actual intent and raised concerns over the potential for the same votes to be counted twice."

"Based on the legal facts above, it is evident that granting the petition would result in the loss of voters’ ballots and the duplication of vote counting. Such outcomes would contradict the fundamental principle of elections—one person, one vote, one value. Therefore, the petitum renders the petition unclear or obscure." stated Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat.

In light of these considerations, the Court declared the petition vague and upheld the preliminary objections raised by the Respondent and the Relevant Parties. The remaining arguments submitted by the Petitioner were deemed irrelevant and were not further examined.

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Previously, the Petitioner alleged violations during the recount at Polling Station 19 in Namlea Village and the conduct of the re-vote at Polling Station 02 in Debowae Village. The Petitioner accused the Buru Regency General Elections Commission (KPU) of failing to reconcile the number of ballots with the official voter list, and of permitting individuals who were not registered in the Final Voter List, the Additional Final Voter List, or the supplementary list to vote in the revote. The Petitioner also claimed incidents of voter intimidation and other administrative violations, including alleged inconsistencies in the data found in voter notification forms.

On these grounds, the Petitioner requested that the Constitutional Court annul Buru Regency KPU Decision Number 57 of 2025 concerning the Amendment to Decision Number 136 of 2024 on the Determination of the Results of the 2024 Election for Regent and Deputy Regent of Buru Regency, insofar as it pertains to the results of the re-vote at Polling Station 02 in Debowae Village and the ballot recount at Polling Station 19 in Namlea Village. The Petitioner further requested the Court to order the Buru Regency KPU to conduct a re-vote at Polling Station 02 in Debowae Village, Waelata Subdistrict.

Author: Utami Argawati

Editor: Lulu Anjarsari P.

PR: Tiara Agustina

Translator: Fuad Subhan

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 prevails.

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