Bobby Nasution-Surya Named as Elected North Sumatra Gubernatorial Candidates, Both Candidate Pairs Absent

MEDAN, KOMPAS – Bobby Nasution-Surya has been designated as the elected governor and deputy governor of North Sumatra. The designation was made one day after the Constitutional Court rejected the lawsuit filed by Edy Rahmayadi-Hasan Basri Sagala. Neither Bobby-Surya nor Edy-Hasan were present at the designation. Bobby chose to play tennis during the designation of the elected candidates.

The North Sumatra General Election Commission appointed Bobby-Surya as the elected candidate pair in an open plenary meeting in Medan, Wednesday (5/2/2025) afternoon. "Appointing candidate pair number 1 Bobby-Surya with a total of 3,645,611 votes or 64.46 percent as the elected governor and deputy governor for the 2025-2030 period," said North Sumatra KPU Chairman Agus Arifin.

Agus stated that the North Sumatra KPU appointed Bobby-Surya as the elected candidate pair after the Constitutional Court rejected the petition regarding the dispute over the election results (PHPU) submitted by candidate pair number 2 Edy-Hasan.

Agus handed over a copy of the decision regarding the determination of the elected candidate pair to the Secretary of the North Sumatra Democratic Party DPD, Yudha Johansyah, who is also the spokesperson for the Bobby-Surya candidate pair. No one from the Edy-Hasan team came to receive the copy of the decision on the determination of the elected candidate pair.

Regarding the absence of the two candidate pairs, Agus stated that this does not disrupt the agenda for the selection of the elected candidate pairs. The North Sumatra General Election Commission (KPU Sumut) has invited both candidate pairs and their supporting political parties. Bobby-Surya is scheduled to participate in the simultaneous inauguration of regional heads on February 20, 2025.

Agus stated that there are 16 PHPU applications they are facing, namely one for the North Sumatra gubernatorial election and 15 for district/city elections. The Constitutional Court has already rejected the PHPU application for the North Sumatra gubernatorial election and 11 at the district/city level. One application has proceeded to the evidence agenda, namely the Mandailing Natal regional election lawsuit. Two more applications are still awaiting the Constitutional Court's decision.

Yudha stated that he was sent by Bobby-Surya to attend the announcement of the elected candidate pair. However, he did not explain the reason for Bobby's absence at the announcement. "There were some matters earlier. He delegated it to me from the winning team," he said.

Kompas monitoring, Bobby played tennis with the Medan City Regional Leadership Communication Forum during the determination of the elected candidate pair. They played tennis at the newly inaugurated Medan Flower Garden Stadium.

"Maybe he's there. I haven't monitored it yet. But it was delegated to us," said Yudha.

Yudha said, they thanked all parties because all stages of the North Sumatra gubernatorial election had been passed until the determination of the elected candidate pair. He asked all parties to respect the ongoing election process and also the Constitutional Court's decision.

"The Constitutional Court's decision has rejected the petition from the applicant, namely candidate pair number 2," said Yudha.

Responding to the Constitutional Court's decision, Edy-Hasan's spokesperson, Sutrisno Pangaribuan, stated that he respected the Constitutional Court's decision, which was final and binding in cases of disputes regarding general election results.

"However, there are still legal efforts, but not from the Constitutional Court. We will pursue it to the State Administrative Court. This is not because we want to fight. We want to straighten out that every citizen must obey the law and legislation," said Sutrisno.