JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Constitutional Court (MK) held another hearing to hear responses from the Respondent, including statements from the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and other Relevant Parties, on the 2024 Election Results Dispute for the candidate members of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) of Panai Regency, Electoral District (Dapil) of Paniai 2. The Case No. 174-01-17-36/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 was filed by the United Development Party (PPP). The hearing was held in Panel 3 Courtroom on Tuesday (7/5/2024), presided over by Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat, Anwar Usman and Enny Nurbaningsih.

At the hearing, through legal counsel Muhammad Mukhlasir Ridla Syukranil Khitam,  the Respondent (General Election Commission (KPU)) addressed Petitioner's allegations on significant discrepancies in vote count in Panai and Dogiyai regencies. The Petitioner explained that based on a local tribal agreement known as "Noken", their legislative candidate, Albertus Keiya, should have acquired far more votes than those officially stipulated. Internal calculations by the party indicated that Keiya acquired 65,587 valid votes under this agreement, whereas only 1,025 votes were actually recorded.

The Petitioner previously made strong allegations that all District Election Committees (PPD) and the KPU of Paniai Regency engaged in vote manipulation. They claimed that votes originally designated for the Petitioner's Legislative Candidate, Albertus Keiya, as per the Tribal Agreement in the Electoral District (Dapil) of Paniai Regency, were transferred to Komarudin Watubun from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP).

In addition to Paniai Regency, the Petitioner also challenged similar irregularities in other Electoral Districts (Dapil) within the same regency and in Dogiyai Regency, where the vote acquisition not align with the official data from the KPU.

"Petitioner's request is obscure due to alternative points in the petitum, the Petitioner requests for different main points, so it is obscure what the petitioner is actually requesting for," said Ridla Syukranil.

In consideration of the provided explanations, the Respondent requested the Court to decide, based on the exception, to fully accept and grant their exception. Additionally, they sought the dismissal of the entire Petitioner's request and affirmed the correctness of KPU Decree No. 360 of 2024.

Also read: PPP Challenges Election Results in Central Papua, Alleging Vote Transfer to PDIP

Failure to Meet Formal and Material Requirements 

Bawaslu confirmed that the explanations from the Relevant Parties and the Respondent were aligned. Through Markus Madai, Bawaslu explained that the correct vote acquisition was 1,025 votes for Albertus Keiya of the PPP in Paniai Regency, and 74,526 votes for Komarudin Watubun in Paniai. In Dogiyai Regency, Albertus acquired 32,634 votes.

"Albertus Keiya of PPP in Paniai Regency acquired 1,025 votes and Kamarudin Watubun in Paniai acquired 74,526 votes. In Dogiyai Regency, Albertus acquired 32,634 votes," stated Markus.

Furthermore, in this case, there were reports, but they failed to meet formal and material requirements.

"Your Honors, regarding this matter, there have been reports; however, Bawaslu has issued a status indicating that they fail to meet formal and material requirements," said Yonas Yonampa, representing Bawaslu.

During the hearing, the PDIP as the Relevant Party presented a statement.  Through legal counsel Mulyadi Marks Phillian, PDIP stated that the Petitioner cannot argue to request the KPU to return 65,587 votes without valid and relevant evidence. Mulyadi asserted that the vote acquisition of the Relevant Party, totaling 74,525 votes in Paniai Regency, aligns to the KPU Decree No. 360 of 2024.

Furthermore, Mulyadi stated that in Dogiyai Regency, based on the Respondent's recapitulation, the Petitioner's acquired 32,634 votes and the Related Party's acquired 8,878 votes. Referring to the Final Voters List (DPT) in Dogiyai Regency, the total was around 95,655 votes, while the Petitioner argued for a total of 95,714 votes, which exceeds the DPT.

In the petitum, the Relevant Party requests the Court to dismiss all of the Petitioner's requests and affirm the validity of KPU Decree No. 360 of 2024.(*)

Author : Adam Ilyas

Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.

PR : Tiara Agustina

Translator : Naomi Andrea Zebua

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.