2024 North Tapanuli regency election
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The 2024 North Tapanuli regency election was held on 27 November 2024 as part of nationwide local elections to elect the regent of North Tapanuli Regency, North Sumatra for a five-year term. Perindo candidate Jonius Taripar Parsaoran Hutabarat, formerly a member of the North Sumatra Regional House of Representatives, defeated PDI-P candidate and wife of previous regent Satika Simamora in the election.
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27 November 2024
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| Turnout | 73.5% | ||||||||||||||||||
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Electoral system
The election, like other local elections in 2024, follow the first-past-the-post system where the candidate with the most votes wins the election, even if they do not win a majority.[1] It is possible for a candidate to run uncontested, in which case the candidate is still required to win a majority of votes "against" an "empty box" option. Should the candidate fail to do so, the election will be repeated on a later date.[2]
The size of the electorate was initially announced as 227,118 eligible voters,[3] later revised to 226,579.[4]
Candidates
The previous regent, Nikson Nababan, had served for two full terms in 2014–2024 and was ineligible to run in the election.[5]
Jonius–Deni
Jonius Taripar Parsaoran Hutabarat, a member of the provincial North Sumatra Regional House of Representatives from Perindo Party, registered at his party to run as regent in North Tapanuli on 15 May 2024.[6] As his running mate, Perindo approved Deni Parlindungan Lumbantoruan, an engineering lecturer at a local private university described as a confidant to former Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. According to Lumbantoruan, him and Jonius had been engaged in discussions about their joint bid since 2022.[7] By the time of their registration on 29 August 2024, the ticket had received further endorsements from six other parties: Nasdem, Golkar, Hanura, Demokrat, Gerindra, and PSI.[8]
Satika–Sarlandi
In August 2024, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and the National Awakening Party officially endorsed Satika Simamora, wife of previous two-term regent of North Tapanuli Nikson Nababan, to run as regent.[9] As her running mate was Sarlandy Hutabarat, former vice regent of Nikson Nababan between 2019 and 2024.[10]
Results
| Candidate | Running mate | Candidate party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonius Taripar Parsaoran Hutabarat | Deni Lumbantoruan | Perindo | 105,505 | 64.28 | |
| Satika Simamora | Sarlandi Hutabarat | PDI-P | 58,634 | 35.72 | |
| Total | 164,139 | 100.00 | |||
| Valid votes | 164,139 | 98.61 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 2,321 | 1.39 | |||
| Total votes | 166,460 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 226,579 | 73.47 | |||
| Source: [11] | |||||
Aftermath
Following the announcement of the election result, the Satika–Sarlandi campaign team filed a suit at the Constitutional Court of Indonesia (MK) to overturn the election results, claiming that regency officials were not neutral in the election. MK rejected the lawsuit on 4 February 2025 citing a lack of evidence.[12] Jonius and Deni were sworn in as regent and vice regent on 20 February 2025.[13]