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Area Coordinator of Yalimo Regency KPU, Hestivina Kawer gave an explanation in the hearing for Regent Election Results Dispute for Yalimo Regency on Monday (01/03) in the courtroom. Photo by PR/Teguh.

JAKARTA, PUBLIC RELATIONS - Constitutional Court held the third hearing for case Number 97/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 concerning the 2020 Regional Head Election Results Dispute for Yalimo Regency. In the hearing, witness of Yalimo Regency KPU explained about the votes difference between the polling station (TPS) and Regency.

Head of District Election Committee (PPD) of Welarek District, Urbanus Walilo as a witness invited by General Elections Commission (KPU) or Respondent explained that the claim from Petitioner (Candidate Pair Number 2 Lakius Peyon-Nahum Mabel) concerning the votes difference was not true. Walilo shared that in the regency level recapitulation, Relevant Party (Candidate Pair Number 1 Erdi Dabi-John W. Wilil) received 3.716 votes and Petitioner received 18.049 votes. Therefore, the results were different from what was written in the report of every TPS. The number of voters listed on the Final Voters List (DPT) of Welarek District was 21.810 votes from 76 TPSs. The voting process was based on the democratic system where one voted for one ballot. However, in reality this sometimes was not the case in TPS.  

“Therefore, the claim stating that Candidate Pair Number 1 received 0 (zero) vote whereas Candidate Pair Number 2 received 21.080 votes was not true,” he explained in front of the Justices Panel chaired by Justice Arief Hidayat accompanied by Justices Saldi Isra and Manahan MP Sitompul.

Furthermore, he explained that he and the Area Coordinator of Yalimo Regency KPU, Hestivina Kawer, felt threatened by the mass of Petitioner’s supporters. The mass threatened them as the election committee by damaging the secretariat office of PPD by bows and arrows and machetes, as well as giving out verbal threats. 

“If the 21.080 votes were not given to the Candidate Pair Number 2, they would be killed and given their heads. Seeing this unsafe situation, we reported to the Pandis Secretariat with the hope of getting a recommendation to change the place for the plenary meeting. However, they did not give a recommendation on that 14 December 2020 but a verbal affirmation instead,” he shared.  (Pandis, election controller on District Level - red)

Delay of Ballots Distribution 

Meanwhile, the Head of PPD of Apalapsili District, Salmo Kepno reported that in his area there were 52 TPSs and DPT with 13.178 voters. Relevant Party received 9.089 votes whereas the Petitioner received 4.089 votes. He shared that the distribution of election logistics was done on 10 December 2020 and not 8 December 2020 due to the incident of the logistics officers being blocked. After a coordination with Pandis and Regency KPU, a recommendation for an additional voting done on 11 December 2020. 

“On 13 December 2020 we as the members of PPD and the head of Area Coordinator did a recapitulation and came up with the result. After that, it was planned to have a plenary in district level but on 14 December 2020 there was a blockage by the Candidate Pair Number 2,” he shared. 

Other than the 2 (two) witnesses, KPU also invited Sefnat Nauw who was the Head of Technical Department of Yalimo Regency KPU. Nauw shared that he was present in the regency level recapitulation to supervise the votes count recapitulation process. 

“I attended the plenary meeting in the regency led by the Head of KPU and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body), police officers, regional government, witnesses of Candidate Pair Number 1 and 2 were also there. But there was an objection from the Petitioner about the votes in Districts of Welarek and Apalapsili,” he shared.

Logistics Seizing 

In the hearing, the Justices also heard the testimony of Petitioner’s witnesses, namely Zeblon Walilo, Jepon Yare, and Yonam A. Walianggen. Walilo as a mandate witness shared that the recapitulation in Welarek District on 15 December 2020 attended only by the Petitioner’s witnesses. On voting day, the voting was done using ikat system. The results then written on the C-Result Form and on the D-Result Form in the district level where Relevant Party received 0 (zero) vote and Petitioner received 21.810 votes. 

“Recapitulation done on 15 December, it was actually postponed because there was no place for a votes count process because the office of PPD Secretariat was damaged, that was what I heard because on 14 December 2020 I was in Welarek District,” he shared. 

Meanwhile, Yonam A. Walianggen as the village head explained that logistics for election for 29 TPSs were seized. There was an incident where the mass did sabotation,, although there were police officers and Bawaslu. 

“Then the logistics were carried somewhere. The ballot boxes, I do not know exactly where those were, I only knew that 18 boxes were carried to Perindo, and 11 other boxes were kept in the Secretariat of Bulan Bintang Party.” 

Dispute

The Court also heard the testimony of Endu Irawan and Sudirman from the Police Stations of Welarek and Apalapsili Districts regarding the security of the election process in those districts. Sudirman testified that there was a delay of election logistics distribution which should be done on 8 December 2020 for the election on 9 December 2020, but only on 11 December 2020 the logistics  were given to TPS.

“We guided only until the distribution to district because mass of people gathering there, so we focused on the security of the district office and the officers inside the logistics office,” he shared. 

Change of Voting Results

Petitioner also invited Heru Widodo as an Expert to explain about the voting results in Welarek District and that there was no ballot distribution in the village. He said that the voting based on acclamation or noken system or ikat system was a form of sociological approach to respect the local tradition. To ensure the certainty of law, a socialization was necessary as long as the voting done with those systems could be proven, so it could be accepted as a local practice with a side note that modernization should be in the future agenda. In regards to the change of votes for the petitioner, he said that it could potentially ruin democracy. Even using the ikat system, the validity should be guarded through the valid process involving the forms. “So there was no reason for a change of votes by the Respondent,” he said. 

In regards to the incident happened in Welarek district, he said it was violating the administrative aspect of the voting results and that the statement letter made by the local citizens should not overpower the voting rights. Law enforcement should be done through immediate correction done orderly and forms could be validated in supervision. 

In the previous hearing, Petitioner argued about the voting results in Welarek District. They claimed they received 21.810 votes whereas Relevant Party received 0 (zero) vote. Those results were in accordance with the recommendation of pandis of Welarek as well as record and certification of recapitulation in district level.

Other than that, Petitioner also argued about the voting results in 29 villages due to the seizing of logistics (ballots) as they received 0 (zero) vote whereas Relevant Party received 7.314 votes. For this matter, they had reported to Bawaslu of Yalimo Regency on 14 December 2020. However, in the votes count recapitulation in the regency level, Respondent still attached the votes count in 29 villages where an election process based on the law was not executed. Based on these violations, Petitioner plead the Court to command KPU to have an election redo in 29 villages in the area of Apalapsili in Lampukmu and Natoksili Villages. 

Writer : Sri Pujianti
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari
Uploader : Rudi

Translator : WA
Editor (EN) : NL
Managing Editor : BW

Translation uploaded on 2 March, 2021 at 11.40 WIB

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

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