Nasdem Party’s attorney Ridwan Syaidi Tarigan (center) delivering the subjects of the petition in the 2019 Legislative Election Results Dispute (PHPU) of Papua Province on Tuesday (9/7) in the Panel Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ganie.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Three candidates for the Regional Representative Council (DPD) from the Democratic Party and the Democratic National Party (NasDem) become Petitioners for the 2019 Legislative Election Result Dispute (PHPU) of the Papua Province. The Petitioners submitted the arguments of the petitions in the preliminary examination hearing on Tuesday (9/7/2019) in the Panel Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. The fourth session of the day was opened at 16.00 WIB by Constitutional Justice Aswanto (panel chairperson), with Constitutional Justices Saldi Isra and Manahan M. P. Sitompul.

DPD candidate for the electoral district (Dapil) of Papua, Carel Simon Petrus Suebu, is the Petitioner in case No. 07-33/PHPU-DPD/XVII/2019. Attending the hearing without attorney, he argued that the General Election Commission (KPU) had committed many violations in the DPD election. Another DPD candidate for of Dapil Papua, Hasbi Suaib, argued the same issue in petition No. 08-33/PHPU-DPD/XVII/2019.

“The election of DPD members was rife with violations in a number of regencies, such as the absence of voting and vote counting,” said Hasbi\'s attorney, Arsi Divinubun. In addition, the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) had declared that there had been violations in Paniai Regency, Intan Jaya Regency, and Puncak Regency.

Papua DPD candidate Paulus Yohanes Sumino, Petitioner No. 10-33/PHPU-DPD/XVII/2019, through attorney Wiwin Winata stated that the voting in Tolikara Regency, Jayawijaya Regency, and Paniai Regency still used the noken system, which the people had agreed upon.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party (PD) as Petitioner No. 68-14-33/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019 registered 13 cases of the 2019 DPR-DPRD (House of Representatives-Regional Legislative Council) PHPU in the Papua Province Electoral District (Dapil). In the hearing, PD stated that votes for their legislative candidate, Carolus Kia Kellen Boli, had been purged. As a result, Carolus did not get a seat in the House (DPR). The votes belonging to the Democratic Party were allegedly switched to other political parties.

Meanwhile, the NasDem Party, Petitioner No. 194-05-33/PHPU.DPR-DPRD/XVII/2019, questioned the violence when Bawaslu ordered a recount on the election of DPR members of Papua. “Bawaslu has ordered a recount because of violence committed by Gerindra’s legislative candidate during the election of Papua DPR members. In addition, there were irregularities in the KPU\'s decision about the recapitulation of the votes on the election of DPR members of Papua, because there are two different decisions," said Ridwan Saidi Tarigan, the attorney of the Nasdem Party. (Nano Tresna Arfana/NRA)

Translated by: MJK/YW