The court called the plantiff's arguments "baseless" in its ruling on Tuesday, paving the way for the former governor's inauguration on Feb. 20 as the new East Java leader.
The Constitutional Court has dismissed a petition from losing candidate pair Tri “Risma” Rismaharini and Zahrul “Gus Hans” Azhar Asad challenging the results of the 2024 regional head elections, paving the way for former governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa and her deputy Emil Dardak to regain East Java’s gubernatorial seat.
Reading out the court’s ruling on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra said the judicial panel found that the plaintiff’s arguments alleging vote manipulation were “legally baseless”.
For example, the Risma-Gus Hans camp presented several copies of the C.Hasil forms, certified reports on polling stations’ manual tabulation, claiming they had been manipulated to produce a final tally favoring Khofifah-Emil. But witnesses from Risma’s camp had signed the forms, undermining the plaintiff’s allegation.
“The court also did not find any particular incidents that were deemed to disrupt the gubernatorial election,” Saldi said in a court statement on Tuesday.
“Therefore, the court viewed as irrelevant to proceed with the petition to the final hearings.”
Read also: Regional heads’ inauguration postponed until Feb. 20
The Khofifah-Emil ticket, endorsed by President Prabowo Subianto and his big-tent Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM), gained a commanding lead of 58.8 percent in the province’s November race.
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