The Petitioners’ legal counsels at the ruling hearing for case No. 325/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Pesawaran regent election results dispute, Thursday (6/26/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.
JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) has decided to declare petition No. 325/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Pesawaran regent election results dispute inadmissible. The Court held that candidate pair number 1 Supriyanto-Suriansyah Rhalieb as Petitioners had presented insufficient evidence to support their claim, so it viewed that it would be irrelevant to continue the case to evidentiary hearings.
“The Court is of the opinion that for the a quo petition, there is no reason to override, disregard, or deviate from the provisions of Article 158 of Law No. 10 of 2016 (Regional Head Election Law/Pilkada Law), which regulates the legal standing of a petitioner as a formal requirement to file a petition challenging the results of gubernatorial, regent, or mayoral elections,” said Constitutional Justice Ridwan Mansyur at the ruling hearing on Thursday, June 26, 2025 in the plenary courtroom.
He explained that a further evidentiary hearing can only be held if the Petitioners’ petition had met the requirements set forth in Article 158 of Law No. 10 of 2016. Should these requirements not be met, and should the Court wish to bypass them, there must be strong indications of the occurrence of a particular extraordinary event or circumstance. However, the Court did not find any such indications. Moreover, the Court could not be convinced where, in this case, the Petitioners submitted only a single piece of evidence, i.e. a decree of the Pesawaran Regency Elections Commission (KPU), which in itself is not directly related to the various incidents Petitioner alleged.
In fact, the submission of sufficient and proper evidence when filing a petition with the Court is fundamentally an expression of a petitioner’s earnestness and seriousness in seeking to resolve the issues raised—in this instance, alleged election violations or loss of votes. According to the Court, the limited evidence the Petitioners had submitted shows that the petition was not supported by adequate evidence to substantiate their arguments.
The results of the revote organized by the Pesawaran Regency KPU on May 24, which was mandated by the Constitutional Court in Decision No. 20/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025, show that candidate pair number 1 Supriyanto-Suriansyah (Petitioners) earned 88,482 votes, while candidate pair number 2 Nanda Indira-Antonius M. Ali (Relevant Party) won 128,715. Based on these figures, the margin between the two candidate pairs’ votes amounted to 18.52 percent of the total valid votes, thus exceeding the threshold for filing a petition for dispute over election results (PHPU) for Pesawaran regent, which is set at 1.5 percent.
Aside from alleging misappropriation of state funds, the Petitioners also alleged that through Pesawaran regent Umpu Bukuk Jadi Dendi Ramadhona, who is also husband of vice-regent candidate number 2, candidate pair number 2 had directly or indirectly mobilized the Pesawaran regent government and election organizers to ensure their victory using structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) vote buying practices. This, they argued, should be enough ground for the Court to disregard the regional election threshold and grant the petition.
Candidate pair number 2 Nanda Indira-Antonius M. Ali (Relevant Party) rejected the allegation of the misappropriation of the DPR/MPR (House of Representatives/People’s Consultative Assembly) aspiration funds and the Lampung Provincial DRPD (Regional Legislative Council) recess funds for the Pesawaran regent election. They firmly denied any involvement in the misuse of state or regional resources for political contestation purposes.
The Petitioners also alleged that agricultural machinery and equipment had been distributed for election purposes in Purworejo Village, Negeri Katon District, Pesawaran Regency on May 6, 2025 for four farmers’ groups associations—Arjuna Jaya from Purworejo Village, Cinta Karya from Lumbir Rejo Village, Sumber Kehidupan from Bangun Sari Village, and Sido Muncul from Halangan Ratu Village. They alleged that government aid of 6-inch water pumps and 10 units of hand sprayer had been distributed through the proposed electoral district development program (UP2DP), or more commonly known as aspiration funds, provided by Gerindra Party MPR member Ahmad Muzani, for the Relevant Party.
The Relevant Party explained that the distribution of agricultural machinery and equipment in question was an official, state-funded program that had been scheduled well in advance and bore no relation to the Pesawaran regent election revote. Furthermore, the Pesawaran Regency Bawaslu had neither found nor recommended to any competent authority that a violation had occurred as alleged by the Petitioners.
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Nanda-Antonius Denies Aspiration and Recess Funds Were for Pesawaran Election
Palopo and Mahakam Ulu Election Disputes to Continue
Meanwhile, election dispute cases No. 326/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 on the Palopo mayoral election dan No. 327/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the Mahakam Ulu regent election will continue to evidentiary hearings. The Petitioners of both cases may propose up to four experts and four witnesses for the next hearing, scheduled to take place on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. The Petitioners will be notify on this schedule.
Also read: Decision No. 325/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025
Author : Mimi Kartika
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR : Fauzan Febriyan
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
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.
Thursday, June 26, 2025 | 20:48 WIB 192