The 2020 Yalimo Regency election results dispute hearing for case No. 154/PHP.BUP-XX/2022 to hear the Petitioners’ argument, Tuesday (2/15/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Ilham W.M.

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Tuesday, February 15, 2022 | 17:50 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) held a special panel hearing on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 after a revote for the 2020 Yalimo Regency election results dispute for case No. 154/PHP.BUP-XX/2022, filed by Candidate Pair No. 2 Lakius Peyon-Nahum Mabel. Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto (panel chair), Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo, and Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih heard the Petitioners’ petition.

The Petitioners’ legal counsel Jonathan Waeo said that until the revote that the Respondent (Yalimo Regency KPU/General Elections Commission) held on January 26, 2022, the Respondent had not followed the Constitutional Court’s mandate referred to in Decision No. 145/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021. This, the Petitioners asserted, would have constituted a violation of the KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission) Regulation No. 2 of 2020 on the Amendment to the KPK Regulation No. 7 of 2017 on the Deadline of LHKPN (official wealth reports). The Petitioners viewed the inappropriate wealth reporting as a deliberate attempt to conceal wealth.

The Petitioners also found that Candidate Pair No. 1 and the Respondent had committed violations. One of them was the non-transparent replacement and appointment of PPD (district election committee) in 5 districts in Yalimo Regency, as only certain people were selected as PPD officers. As a result, electoral frauds occurred during the revote as oddities and data manipulation there were carried out by the Respondent in several areas. This includes the number of DPT (final voters list), which should be 90,948 votes—48,504 votes for Candidate Pair No. 1, 41,548 votes for Candidate Pair No. 2, and 896 invalid votes. Meanwhile, the Petitioners observed there had been fraud in Ohoniam, Ohobam, and Bulmu in Elelim District and several other villages did not participate in the revote. They also found that votes were sabotaged in 14 villages in Apalapsili District by KPPS (polling station working committee) officers and the campaign team of Candidate Pair No. 1 by voting and filling in the C-Hologram result forms. In addition, Waeo added, fraud also occurred in Abenaho District. All these manipulative practices had taken away 6,956 votes from the Petitioners.

“Thus, the valid votes obtained by the candidates—Candidate Pair No. 1 for Yalimo regent-vice regent of 2020 Nahor Nekwek and John W. Willi—should have received 41,548 votes, while Candidate Pair No. 2 for Yalimo regent-vice regent of 2020 Lakius Peyon and Nahum Mabel should have received a total of 48,504 votes,” Waeo said at the hearing, in which he appeared in person alongside Yalimo vice regent candidate No. 2 Nahum Mabel.

For the alleged TSM (structured, systematic, and massive) violations by the Respondent and Candidate Pair No. 1, the Petitioners requested in their petitum that the Court annul the KPU Decree No. 301/PL.02.7/9122/2022 dated January 30, 2022 on the Certification of the Revote Recapitulation Post-Constitutional Court Decision on June 29, 2021. They also requested that the Court disqualify Candidate Pair No. 1 Nahor Nekwek for not meeting the requirement of party nomination. In addition, they requested that the Court declare the Certification of the Revote Recapitulation Post-Constitutional Court Decision No. 145/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 regarding the 2020 Yalimo regent-vice regent election means that Candidate Pair No. 1 Nahor Nekwek and John W. Willi received 41,548 votes while Candidate Pair No. 2 Lakius Peyon and Nahum Mabel received 48,504 votes.

Before concluding the session, Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto informed everyone at the hearing that the next hearing would take place on Thursday, February 17, 2022 on 10:00 WIB to hear the testimonies of the Respondent, Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body), and the Relevant Party.

Writer        : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P
PR            : Fitri Yuliana
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 2/17/2022 12:18 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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