The Election Dispute Session, Paslon Ahmad Ali-Abdul Asks For The 2024 Central Sulawesi Gubernatorial Election To Be Repeated

The attorney for candidate pair Ahmad Ali-Abdul Karim Al Jufri read out his client's petition in the preliminary examination of the 2024 Pilkada dispute at the Constitutional Court Building, Jakarta, Monday (13/1/2025). (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The candidate pair for governor and deputy governor of Central Sulawesi number 1 Ahmad Ali-Abdul Karim Al Jufri asked the Constitutional Court to order the Central Sulawesi General Election Commission to re-vote because they suspected that there were administrative violations committed by two rivals.

According to Ahmad Ali-Abdul Karim, candidate pair number 2 Anwar-Reny A. Lamadjido and candidate pair number 3 Rusdy Mastura-Sulaiman Agusto violated the provisions of Article 71 paragraph (2) of Law Number 10 of 2016 concerning Pilkada.

"The two pairs of candidates inaugurate officials within the Central Sulawesi Provincial Government and in Palu City within a time limit for the purposes prohibited by the legislation," said the applicant's attorney, Rahmat Hidayat, at the preliminary examination hearing at panel 3 at Building I MK, Jakarta, Monday.

Article 71 paragraph (2) of the Pilkada Law stipulates that governors, regents, mayors and deputys are prohibited from replacing officials six months before the date of determination of candidate pairs until the end of their term of office, unless they are approved by the minister.

Rusdy Mastura, who is the incumbent Central Sulawesi Governor, is said to have issued a decree to replace 127 officials within the Central Sulawesi Provincial Government on March 21, 2024. The next day, March 22, all officials registered in the decree were appointed by Rusdy Mastura as Governor.

The Ahmad Ali-Abdul Karim camp said that the replacement and inauguration of officials by Rusdy Mastura did not receive approval from the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri).

"Karena tahu bahwa itu tidak izin dan dilarang maka gubernur incumbent ini melakukan pembatalkan terhadap SK tersebut dan kemudian baru mengajukan izin kepada Mendagri dan keluar izinnya pada tanggal 26 April 2024. Jadi, ini pengapannya hampir satu bulan," ucap Andi Syafrani, kuasa hukum lainnya.

In addition, the Ahmad Ali-Abdul Karim camp also argued the same violation by Reny A. Lamadjido. It is known that Reny is the Deputy Mayor of Palu who is running for deputy governor in the 2024 Central Sulawesi Pilkada.

Reny is said to have replaced officials within the Palu City Government through a decree set on March 21, 2024. A total of 165 officials in the decree were then sworn in on March 22.

On that basis, Ahmad Ali-Abdul Karim asked the Constitutional Court to cancel the results of the 2024 Central Sulawesi Regional Election determined by the KPU, and stated that candidate pair number 2 Anwar-Reny and candidate pair number 3 Rusdy-Sulaiman committed administrative violations so that they needed to be disqualified.

Ahmad Ali-Abdul Karim also asked the Constitutional Court to declare that the 2024 Central Sulawesi Pilkada's valid votes were only for them, while the two rivals were declared zero. In addition, it was also requested that the KPU re-vote without including Anwar-Reny and Rusdy-Sulaiman.

Ahmad Ali-Abdul Karim's lawsuit was recorded under Number 284/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025. In that case, both of them sued the Central Sulawesi Provincial KPU.

The Central Sulawesi Provincial KPU previously determined that the Anwar-Reny pair received the most votes, namely 724,518 votes. Meanwhile, the Ahmad Ali-Abdul Karim pair received 621,693 votes and the Rusdy-Sulaiman pair received 263,950 votes.