The preliminary hearing of the Nabire Regency election results dispute, Monday (23/8/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Panji.

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Monday, August 23, 2021 | 19:47 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The preliminary hearing of the 2020 Nabire Regency election results dispute was held by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Monday afternoon, August 23, 2021. The hearing had been scheduled for two cases filed by two candidate pairs. The case No. 149/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 was filed by Candidate Pair No. 3 Fransiscus Xaverius-Tabroni bin M. Cahya, while the case No. 150/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 by Candidate Pair No. 1 Yufinia Mote-Muhammad Darwis.

Through their legal team, the Petitioners of case No. 149/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 Fransiscus Xaverius-Tabroni bin M. Cahya expressed their objection to the Nabire Regency General Elections Commission’s (KPU) Decision No. 223 dated August 3, 2021. The Nabire Regency KPU certified the recapitulation results of the 2020 Nabire Regency Revote: Candidate Pair No. 1 received 18,184 votes, Candidate Pair No. 2 received 25,259 votes, while Candidate Pair No. 3 received 16,135 votes, with the total valid votes 59,578. The vote margin between the Petitioners and the candidate pair with the highest number of votes stood at 9,124. 

DPT Problematic

The Petitioners alleged that the revote counting had not followed the Constitutional Court Decision No. 84/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021, in which the Court ordered a direct revote based on a revised final voters list (DPT).

“The Respondent’s mistake began with their failure to revise the Nabire Regency DPT, basing [the revote] on an invalid, illogical DPT. The Respondent had mistakenly removed 23,574 voters out of the temporary voters list going into the final voters list (DPT). The potentially eligible voters list showed the number of voters being 115,877, consisting of voters above 17 years of age who are not TNI members, police officers, or those who have been married,” said the Petitioners’ counsel, Eduard Nababan, to the bench—Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo (chair), Enny Nurbaningsih, and Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh.

Nababan explained that after the temporary voters list (DPS) was determined based on the potentially eligible voters list (DP4) and data from the previous election, the Respondent should have verified the list. Only after updating the new DPS could they determine the accurate DPT. Their failure to use the verification (coklit) results led to the number of voters in DPT not matching the demography. Residents above 17 years of age was 65-75% of the total population, according to the Director-General of Population and Civil Registry in the Constitutional Court Decision No. 84/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021. 

With a total population of 172,190, the final voters (DPT) of Nabire were determined by the Respondent at 85,983 or only 49% of the population, 16% fewer than the actual number. The Petitioners maintained that this did not make sense.

Revote Flawed

Meanwhile, the Petitioners of case No. 150/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 Yufinia Mote-Muhammad Darwis (Candidate Pair No. 1) through counsel Heru Widodo said that despite the margin between their votes and that of the candidate pair with the highest number of votes (Candidate Pair No. 2) stood at 70,075, the votes for Candidate Pair No. 2 in the revote (PSU) violated statutory laws.

Heru conveyed the Petitioners’ arguments of three violations in the Nabire revote. The first fundamental violation was the fact that the Respondent allowed voters to cast their votes using e-KTP (e-ID), leading to a rise of voters in the DPT. Second, double voting at the same or different polling stations (TPS) by voters in the DPT by using e-KTP. Third, violations by the Respondent and other election organizers at various polling stations, for example polling committee (PPS) chairperson asking polling station working committee (KPPS) chairperson to give away remaining ballots to a certain candidate pair.

Evidence Crucial

Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih stated that evidence is crucial in a regional election dispute that depends largely on concrete cases. “Please provide complete evidence during the examination of this case. The Petitioners of both cases essentially question invalid DPT. So, please provide complete evidence,” she said.

Meanwhile, Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh advised that the discovery request by the Petitioners be filed in the morning, since Jakarta was still under emergency public activity restriction (PPKM). “We also applied shift restriction on our personnel. Please do not file a request in the afternoon [as] it will make it hard for the officers,” he said.

At the end of the hearing, Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) informed the litigants of the schedule for the following hearing. “The hearing will resume on Monday, August 30, 2021 to hear the Respondent’s response, the testimonies of the Relevant Party and the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), and to approve the evidence for cases No. 149 and 150,” he concluded.

Also read:

MK Examined Three Petitions of Nabire Pilkada Dispute

Nabire KPU Responds to Allegations of Violation

Nabire Election Dispute: Not a Candidate Pair, Deki-Yunus Lacks Legal Standing

The Court Hears Witnesses Testimony for Regional Head Election Results Dispute of Nabire

Constitutional Court Commands Election Redo in Nabire Regent

Constitutional Court Affirms Nabire Regent Election Redo

Writer        : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Muhammad Halim
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 8/26/2021 00:17 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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