Failed at MK, Edy Rahmayadi Fails to Prepare Lawsuit at PTUN

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The Constitutional Court rejected the petition of the gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial candidate pair for North Sumatra, Edy Rahmayadi-Hasan Basri Sagala. The Constitutional Court dismissed all arguments requesting the annulment of the vote count results, which placed Bobby Nasution-Surya as the highest vote-getters. Now, Edy-Hasan are preparing to file a lawsuit with the State Administrative Court.

"The applicant does not have the legal standing to file an a quo application. Even if the applicant had legal standing, the applicant's application is legally groundless," said Constitutional Justice M Guntur Hamzah in an open hearing in Jakarta, Tuesday (4/2/2025).

Before the verdict was read, Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Suhartoyo, who presided over the trial, stated that Constitutional Judge Anwar Usman exercised his right to recuse himself from deciding and pronouncing the case. The case was decided by only eight Constitutional Judges.

"According to Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman, this has nothing to do with the ethical decision that he has experienced. This is purely voluntary. Because of his own will. Because one of the candidates is still a family member," said Suhartoyo. After the Chief Justice conveyed this, Anwar appeared to leave the courtroom.

Edy-Hasan is challenging the results of the North Sumatra gubernatorial election, alleging that there were structured, systematic, and massive violations in several regencies/cities. The violations are said to have occurred in Medan City, Serdang Bedagai, Langkat, Asahan, Labuhanbatu, and South Tapanuli.

In their lawsuit, Edy-Hasan mentioned that structured, systematic, and massive violations were committed by the Minister of Home Affairs by replacing the Acting Governor of North Sumatra from Hasanuddin to Agus Fatoni on June 22, 2024. The replacement was made before the election stages commenced.

Agus is said to have involved Bobby in a working visit to several regencies/cities in North Sumatra. Bobby, among others, participated in the da'wah safari program. Regarding this, the respondent said that Bobby participated in the da'wah safari in carrying out his duties as Mayor of Medan, who is ex officio the core committee for the XXI Aceh-North Sumatra National Sports Week (PON).

"Thus, the Court is of the opinion that the applicant's argumenta qua has no legal basis," said Guntur.

Another argument presented by Edy-Hasan is the low voter turnout, which was 55.27 percent. Edy-Hasan stated that the low turnout was due to the floods and landslides during the voting on November 27, 2024.

Regarding this matter, said Guntur, the North Sumatra KPU as the respondent has conducted follow-up voting at 108 polling stations (TPS) in five regencies/cities and additional voting at eight TPS in two regencies/cities.

According to the Court, the respondent has exercised its authority in addressing the flood issues. "Regarding the voter participation which remains low even after the follow-up and continued voting, it is not the fault or negligence of the respondent. The low participation is caused by many factors," said Guntur.

Edy-Hasan also filed a lawsuit regarding the alleged mobilization of village heads in Asahan Regency. The village heads were said to have directed residents to vote for Bobby-Surya by giving them five packs of instant noodles and cooking oil. According to the Court, the petitioner did not clearly specify when, to whom, and how this was done, making the claim unclear.

Guntur stated that the Court also considered the difference in votes between the applicants Edy-Hasan and the respondents Bobby-Surya which exceeded the threshold to file a dispute, namely 0.5 percent. With the number of valid votes in the North Sumatra gubernatorial election of 5,654,922 votes, the threshold for the difference in votes to file a dispute is 28,275 votes.

In fact, the difference in votes between Bobby-Surya and Edy-Hasan Basri was 1,636,300 votes or 28.94 percent. Based on the recapitulation results determined by the North Sumatra KPU, Bobby-Surya received 3,645,611 votes and Edy-Hasan Basri 2,009,311 votes. With the difference in votes exceeding the threshold, the Court stated that Edy-Hasan did not have the legal standing to file a dispute over the election results.

Responding to the Constitutional Court's decision, Edy-Hasan's spokesperson, Sutrisno Pangaribuan, stated that he respected the Constitutional Court's decision, which is 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.