The Respondent’s legal counsel, MHD. Abduh Saf, delivering a statement at a follow-up hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute of Asmat Regency, South Papua Province on Monday (5/13/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) resumed the hearing of the general election results dispute of DPR (House of Representatives) and Provincial DPRD/DPRP (Legislative Council/Papuan People’s Representatives’ Council) and Regency/City DPRD/DPRK (Legislative Council) of Asmat Regency, filed by the Great Movement Party (Gerindra). The case No. 274-01-02-35/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo with Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah.

MHD. Abduh Saf, the Respondent’s (General Elections Commission/KPU) legal counsel, argued that the Petitioner’s claim of the reduction of 19,385 votes in Asmat Regency was false.

“The 19,385 votes were not votes being purged, but a number after revision due to objection raised by the National Awakening Party (PKB) during the regency-level plenary meeting, which led to data comparison at the provincial-level plenary meeting in South Papua,” Abduh firmly stated in the plenary courtroom.

According to the Respondent, the initial vote count for the Petitioner was 22,051 votes, which after comparison and correction, was finalized to 2,666 votes, signed by the attending party witnesses, with all signatures placed on the correction results page. “Following the correction, the Petitioner did not accept the results and walked out, then filed an objection on March 13, 2024,” Abduh emphasized.

The Respondent clarified that the 42,490 votes claimed by the Petitioner for PKB in Asmat Regency were actually the total votes from four regencies—Merauke, Boven Digoel, Mappi, and Asmat—not solely from Asmat as per the minutes and certificate of recapitulation of vote acquisition results for political parties and legislative candidates.

Also read: Gerindra Alleges Votes Shifted to PKB in South Papua

Meanwhile, the South Papua Regency Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body), represented by Tethool, confirmed that data comparison at the provincial-level plenary meeting included objections from political party witnesses on result discrepancies. “Therefore, the KPU requested advice from Bawaslu, and we recommended data comparison. There was difference between the results and the data, leading the South Papua KPU to request corrections to the inaccurate data from the plenary meeting,” he asserted.

Gerindra filed a 2024 general election results dispute (PHPU) petition in South Papua Province. The election dispute in question affected the seat allocation for DPR members, Provincial DPRD/DPRP, and Regency/City DPRD/DPRK in South Papua Province. According to the Petitioner, a difference of 23,105 votes was due to a reduction in the Petitioner’s votes as determined by the Respondent.

Author               : Utami Argawati
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                    : Andhini S.F.
Translator         : Dzaki Difa Al Hadiid, Yuniar W.

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

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