Constitutional Court Rejects South Sulawesi Regional Head Election Lawsuit Danny Pomanto-Azhar Arsyad

JAKARTA - The Constitutional Court has decided not to accept the lawsuit against the results of the 2024 South Sulawesi Pilkada submitted by the candidate pair for governor and deputy governor of South Sulawesi number 1 Moh. Ramdhan Pomanto or familiarly known as Danny Pomanto and Azhar Arsyad.

"Declare that the petitioner's application is unacceptable," said Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Suhartoyo reading out the dismissal case decision Number 257/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, February 4.

The Constitutional Court stated that Danny Pomanto-Azhar Arsyad's request was unacceptable because the arguments for the application were not legally reasonable.

In addition, both of them also do not meet the requirements for the difference in votes to file a lawsuit, as stipulated in Article 158 of Law Number 10 of 2016 concerning Pilkada.

Danny Pomanto-Azhar Arsyad previously argued that the number of invalid votes in Makassar City in the South Sulawesi Regional Election was twice as large as the number of invalid ballots in the Makassar City Pilkada.

According to them, the number of invalid ballots should have occurred more in the Makassar City Pilkada which was attended by four pairs of candidates compared to the South Sulawesi Pilkada which was only attended by two pairs of candidates.

Regarding the argument, Constitutional Justice Ridwan Mansyur said the anomaly of the number of invalid ballots did not necessarily indicate an election violation or procedural error. To be related to criminal or procedural violations, this must first be proven the cause.

"To take sides with the legal facts in the trial, the applicant does not elaborate and/or prove further the argument, so according to the Court of the argument it is groundless according to law," said Ridwan.

The arguments regarding the alleged existence of ASN which was structured, systematic, and massively mobilized in winning candidate pair number 2 Andi Sudirman Sulaiman and Fatmawati Rusdi were also declared groundless according to law. Because, there is no evidence to convince the Court regarding the truth of the argument.

In addition, regarding the Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman who was suspected of being involved in winning his younger brother, namely the candidate for governor Andi Sudirman Sulaiman, the Court also stated that the argument was groundless according to law.

"The Petitioner cannot explain and further prove the correlation of the provision of agricultural equipment assistance (by the Minister of Agriculture) with the effort to win candidate pair number 2," said Ridwan.

Based on these considerations, the Court is of the opinion that there is no reason to rule out the provisions of Article 158 of the Pilkada Law as a formal requirement for Danny Pomanto-Azhar Arsyad in filing a lawsuit.

Referring to Article 158 of the Pilkada Law, the number of votes difference between Danny Pomanto-Azhar Arsyad and Sudirman Sulaiman-Fatmawati Rusdi should not exceed one percent of the total valid votes for the South Sulawesi Pilkada, namely 46,143 votes. However, the difference in votes between the two reached 1,414,226 votes.

"Considering that based on the above legal considerations, the Court is of the opinion that the applicant does not have the legal standing to apply," added Ridwan.