Chief Justice Anwar Usman closing the plenary hearing Wednesday (9/29/2021) by reading out the Decision for the case No. 149/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 on the 2020 Nabire Regency election results dispute. Photo by Humas MK/Ilham W.M.

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Wednesday, September 29, 2021 | | 21:52 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) stressed that Candidate Pair No. 1 Yufinia Mote-Muhammad Darwis did not meet the requirements to file a petition based on Article 158 paragraph (2) letter a of Law No. 10 of 2016 on Regional Head Elections (Pilkada), said Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo reading out the Court’s legal considerations at the ruling hearing for case No. 150/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 on the 2020 Nabire Regency election results dispute on Wednesday, September 29, 2021.

The vote margin between the Petitioners and the candidate pair with the most votes should be 2% of the 50,578 total valid votes or 1,192. The evidence and facts in the hearings showed that the Petitioners had received 18,184 votes, while the Relevant Party 25,259. Thus, the margin between the two was 7,075 (11.88%) or beyond the threshold.

The Court holds that although it is authorized to examine the petition, that the petition was filed within the set deadline, and that the Petitioners are a regent-vice regent ticket in the 2020 Nabire Election, the petition did not meet requirements as set in Article 158 paragraph (2) letter a of Law No. 10 of 2016 on Pilkada.

Therefore, the Court believes the Petitioners did not have legal standing to file the a quo petition, but even if they had, quod non, the Petitioners’ arguments were legally groundless. Therefore, the Respondent and Relevant Party’s objection that the Petitioners lacked legal standing was legally valid.

“[The Court] declares the Petitioners’ petition not acceptable; validates the Nabire Regency Elections Commission Decision No. 223/PL.02.6-Kpt/9104/KPU-Kab/VIII/2021 on the certification of vote counting recapitulation and the revote results of the 2020 Nabire Regency Election dated August 3, 2021; orders the Respondent to certify the Elect Candidate Pair in the 2020 Nabire Regency Election,” said Chief Justice Anwar Usman reading out the verdict.

Also read:

Constitutional Court Commands Election Redo in Nabire Regent

Constitutional Court Affirms Nabire Regent Election Redo

Petitioners of Nabire Election Dispute Say KPU Failed to Revise DPT 

Nabire Regency Revote Monitored by KPU and Bawaslu RI Directly

Through legal counsel Heru Widodo, the Petitioners had argued 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.

They alleged that there had been 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.

Writer        : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : M. Halim
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 9/30/2021 18:03 WIB

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.

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