The ruling hearing for case No. 332/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Bangka regent election results dispute, Monday (9/29/2025). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

---

JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) declared the dispute petition over the results of the 2025 Bangka regent revote inadmissible. The petition, filed by candidate pair number 4 Andi Kusuma and Budiyono, did not meet formal requirements.

The Decision No. 332/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 was read out at the ruling hearing held in the plenary courtroom on Monday, September 29, 2025. Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, delivering the Court’s legal considerations, explained that the Petitioners’ petition was unclear or obscure (obscuur libel), particularly regarding the disputed object.

In their petition, the Petitioners requested that the Court annul the KPU Bangka’s decision concerning the 2025 Regional Election (Pilkada). However, according to the Court, the Petitioner did not accurately specify the decision that was the object of the dispute.

The Petitioner merely referred to the decision of the decree of the Bangka Regency Elections Commission (KPU) dated September 2, 2025, at 17:00 WIB, without providing the complete number and title of the decree. In fact, the results of the 2025 Bangka regent revote were stipulated by the Bangka Regency KPU Decree No. 406 of 2025.

“Clarity of object is a necessity in formulating petitums since it relates to the results of valid vote counts. However, the Petitioners did not write the number and title of the decree in full in all sections of the petition, whether in elaboration of the subject matter, the arguments (posita), or the petitums,” Justice Arief emphasized.

According to the Court, such lack of precision rendered the petition unclear and difficult to consider further.

Contradictory Petitums

Beyond the issue of object, the Court also found that the petitums were inconsistent and contradictory. The Petitioners asked the Court to disqualify candidate pairs number 1 and 5 while simultaneously requesting that they be declared the winners of the Bangka Regency revote for the 2025–2030 term.

However, the Court considered this request illogical and potentially nullifying valid votes of the electorate. “In petitums 3 and 4, the Petitioners requested the Court to declare the disqualification of candidate pair number 1 (Relevant Party I) and candidate pair number 5 (Relevant Party II), and cumulatively requested that the Court establish the highest vote count as stated in the table of vote acquisition set forth in petitum 5, and order the KPU and authorized officials to declare and inaugurate Andi Kusuma and Budiyono as the elected regent and vice regent of Bangka Regency for the 2025–2030 term. The formulation of the petitums were not presented in the alternative but cumulatively, so essentially the Petitioners asked for all petitums, i.e., 1 through 6, to be granted simultaneously,” Justice Arief explained.

Such a formulation of the petitums, according to the Court, was contradictory and created legal issues because, as considered earlier, the series of petitums did not begin with a clear request for annulment of the vote count as determined by the Bangka KPU Decree No. 406 of 2025, whether in its entirety or concerning the vote count of particular candidate pairs as requested in petitums 3 and 4.

Furthermore, the request to declare the disqualification of candidate pairs number 1 and 5 was not accompanied by a request concerning follow-up actions to that disqualification, namely the annulment of the KPU Decree on the stipulation of candidate pairs or the request for another revote excluding candidate pairs number 1 and 5 or with replacement candidates. In this case, the Petitioners merely requested that they be directly declared the elected regent and vice regent. If such petitums were granted, it would result in legal uncertainty for voters who had already cast their votes for candidate pairs number 1 and 5. In this regard, disqualification or annulment of a candidate pair’s participation, as requested by the Petitioners, should not automatically result in another candidate pair being declared the elected regent and vice regent.

This rendered the Petitioners’ petitums unenforceable if granted, and thus, the petition based on such petitums became unclear and irrelevant to consider.

The Court added that from the above legal facts, it was evident that granting the petitums would have resulted in the legal consequence of nullifying the votes of the electorate and in the Petitioners being declared the elected regent and vice regent without valid or legitimate election results from a direct, general, free, and confidential voting process. Such an outcome would have in fact amounted to annulling the election results by eliminating a significant portion of voters’ ballots without clarity on the continuation of the election, thereby depriving those votes of value in the process of electing candidate pairs. Consequently, such petitums rendered the Petitioners’ petition unclear or obscure (obscuur).

Also read:

Andi Kusuma-Budiyono Claim Maladministration in Bangka Regent Election

Bangka Regency KPU Denies Allegation of Vote Buying

Regent-vice regent candidate pair number 4 Andi Kusuma and Budiyono filed the petition to the Court. alleged that massive money politics (vote buying) and maladministration by the other candidate pairs had occurred, including questioning the diploma of regent candidate number 5 Rato Rusdiyanto.

Author         : Utami Argawati
Editor          : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR               : Tiara Agustina
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.

---