JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held a preliminary hearing on Monday (4/29/2024) for the Legislative Election Results Dispute (PHPU) involving candidates for the 2024 House of Representatives (DPR RI) in the Central Papua Province Electoral District, and candidates for the Panai Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) in Paniai 1 and Paniai 2 Electoral Districts. Case No.174-01-17-36/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 was filed by the United Development Party (PPP).

In the preliminary hearing presided over by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, accompanied by Constitutional Justices Anwar Usman and Enny Nurbaningsih, through their representative, the petitioner alleged electoral irregularities in the election of DPR members in several districts in Central Papua.

The petitioner argues a significant discrepancy in the vote count at Paniai and Dogiyai districts. Through their representatives, Akhmad Leksono and Muhammad Sholeh Amin, the petitioner explained that based on the Noken agreement held by  tribal chief, the petitioner's legislative candidate, Albertus Keiya, should have obtained substantially more votes than those officially recorded in the recapitulation. The party's internal calculations suggest that Keiya obtained 65,587 valid votes from the agreement, only 1,025 votes were recorded.

"According to the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) decision, the petitioner received 1,025 votes. But we believe the accurate count should be 65,587," stated Akhmad Leksono.

The official vote recapitulation conducted by the local General Elections Commission (KPU) indicates that tens of thousands of votes for the Petitioner have vanished. The Petitioner suspects this is part of a fraudulent scheme involving the transfer of votes to candidates from other parties, identified as Komarudin Watubun from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP).

In their petition, the Petitioner alleges that the District Election Committee (PPD) in all Districts of Paniai Regency and the Paniai Regency General Elections Commission (KPU) are strongly suspected of vote manipulation by diverting votes from the Agreement among  tribal chief intended for the Legislative Candidate from the Paniai Regency Electoral District (Petitioner), Albertus Keiya, to Komarudin Watubun from PDIP.

In addition to Paniai Regency, the Petitioner also reported similar irregularities in other Electoral Districts in the same regency and in Dogiyai Regency, where the votes that should have been obtained do not match the official data of the KPU. This issue has also impacted other legislative candidates, such as Yulius Kudiai and Agustinus Zonggonau, both of whom received significantly fewer votes than claimed Noken votes.

In response to these issues, the Petitioner requests the Court to annul General Elections Commission (KPU) Decree No. 360 of 2024 and instruct the KPU to conduct a re-vote in all regencies in Central Papua Province, or at least to recount the votes as argued by the petitioner.(*)

Author       : Adam Ilyas
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator : Naomi Andrea Zebua/Fuad Subhan (RA)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.