Alif Fachrul Rachman (right), legal counsel for the Petitioner, attending the ruling hearing of the General Election Results Disputes of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Banjarbaru City, held on Monday (26/5/2025) at the Constitutional Court. Photo: MKRI/Ifa
JAKARTA, MKRI – The Constitutional Court (MKRI) dismissed the petition filed by Udiansyah in the case concerning the 2024 General Election Results DIspute (PHPU) of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Banjarbaru City, following the re-vote.
“Declaring that the petition of the Petitioner cannot be accepted,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo while reading out Verdict Number 319/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 during the plenary hearing held on Monday (26/5/2025) at the Constitutional Court, Jakarta.
In the Court’s legal considerations delivered by Constitutional Justice Arsul Sani, it was stated that Udiansyah submitted the petition as an individual citizen, not as an election participant or an accredited election monitoring institution, as required under Article 157 paragraph (4) of Law Number 10 of 2016 and Article 4 paragraph (1) of Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) Number 3 of 2024.
“In this regard, although the Petitioner requested the Court to disregard or postpone the enforcement of formal requirements concerning legal standing as an individual citizen, the Court affirms that legal standing is inherently linked to the qualification of the Petitioner in election result dispute cases and therefore cannot be disregarded,” said Justice Arsul.
Based on these considerations, the Court found the exceptions submitted by the Respondent and Related Parties regarding the Petitioner's legal standing to be legally justified. As Udiansyah was deemed to lack the legal standing required to file the petition, the Court did not examine the principal arguments of the petition, nor did it consider the other exceptions raised by the Respondent and Related Parties.
The Court stated that, due to the absence of legal standing, all substantive matters in the petition were rendered irrelevant and therefore not subject to further review.
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In a previous hearing, the Petitioner, Udiansyah, alleged that the re-voting for the Banjarbaru mayoral election was marred by structured, systematic, and massive violations. Among the allegations, the Petitioner named Ghimoyo—former CEO of the Jhonlin Group, current President Director of a state-owned enterprise (BUMN), and known as the leader of the Dozer Volunteers—as an individual allegedly involved in efforts to secure victory for a specific candidate pair. The Petitioner highlighted that the sole candidate pair, Erna Lisa Halaby and Wartono, who were backed by 13 political parties, garnered only 36,135 valid votes, or 31.5 percent. In contrast, the number of invalid votes reached 78,736, or 68.5 percent. On this basis, the Petitioner requested the Constitutional Court to annul the KPU’s decision and order the General Elections Commission of the Republic of Indonesia (KPU RI) to take over the re-election process for Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Banjarbaru, scheduled for 27 August 2025, in accordance with KPU Regulation Number 19 of 2024 concerning the stages and timeline of regional head re-elections in 2025. The Petitioner also requested that all stages of the Banjarbaru mayoral election be repeated.
For information, the Court partially granted the petition filed by the Coordinator of the Nusantara Vision Study Institute, Muhamad Arifin, in the Banjarbaru City mayoral election dispute under Case Number 05/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025. In its ruling delivered on Monday (24 February 2025), the Court ordered the Banjarbaru City General Election Commission (KPU) to conduct a re-voting (PSU), this time including the option of an empty column on the ballot.
In its legal considerations, the Court stated that the Banjarbaru City mayoral election, as conducted, did not fulfill the constitutional criteria of an election. The Court emphasized that such a process—where the regional head was not democratically elected—was clearly in contradiction with Article 18 paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, which affirms that “Governors, Regents, and Mayors as heads of provincial, regency, and city governments are democratically elected.” (*)
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 will prevail.
Monday, May 26, 2025 | 15:35 WIB 821