Golkar’s DPR Election Dispute Petition for Papua Province Deemed Inadmissible

The Petitioner’s legal counsel Derek Loupatty presenting at the Ruling Hearing in Plenary Courtroom (21/5/2024). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

JAKARTA (MKRI) —— The Constitutional Court (MK) deemed the Case No. 40-02-04-33/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 on the DPR (House of Representatives) Election Dispute (PHPU) for Papua Province electoral districts (dapil) as inadmissible. The Court ruled that the case filed by Golkar (Party of Functional Groups) lacks detailed explanation of the arguments regarding election result calculation errors, rendering the petition obscure.

“In the essence of the petition, the petitioner's petition is deemed inadmissible,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo during the ruling hearing at the Plenary Courtroom, Jakarta, on Tuesday, May 21, 2024.

Justice Arsul Sani clarified that the Court found insufficient detail in the petitioner's statement regarding the specific locations of the alleged vote calculation errors. Consequently, the Court was unable to conduct a thorough examination of the purported vote calculation errors, including the alleged vote inflation raised by the petitioner.

In this case, the petitioner only mentioned that there had been varying changes in votes for all political parties, at least in Jayapura City and Jayapura Regency, but did not specify the location of the alleged vote calculation errors by referring to the suspected locations where the vote calculation errors occurred. However, clearly identifying the location (locus) of the vote changes is a fundamental aspect that must be presented to the Court to prove whether or not the alleged vote changes indeed took place.

Moreover, when the petitioner only emphasizes that the changes in votes occurred "at least" in Jayapura City and Jayapura Regency, the use of the term "at least" indicates that the petitioner is not entirely certain that the vote changes indeed occurred in these locations. Regarding this matter, within the bounds of reasonable reasoning, the use of the term "at least" suggests that the petitioner lacks full confidence that the vote changes occurred in the aforementioned locations. However, clarity regarding the location (locus) of the incident is an essential requirement to fulfill the element of clarity in the preparation of the petition as stipulated in Article 75 of the Constitutional Court Law (UU MK) and Article 11 of Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) No. 2/2023.

"Based on the legal considerations mentioned above, the petitioner's petition does not meet the formal requirements for drafting a petition as stipulated in Article 75 of UU MK and Article 11 paragraph (2) of PMK No. 2/2023, thus rendering the petition in question obscure or ambiguous," said Justice Arsul.

Also read:

Golkar: Election Anomaly, Winning in DPRP, Losing in DPR RI Papua Electoral District

Previously, Golkar (petitioner) argued the occurrence of structured, systematic, and massive (SSM) violations, including vote inflation against major parties at the district level. According to the petitioner, an anomaly occurred because Golkar won the provincial DPRD election in Papua Province but did not secure seats at the national DPR level. In filling the members of the provincial DPRD Papua, Golkar garnered the most votes with 108,003 votes in seven electoral districts.

In its petitum, the petitioner requests the Court to annul KPU (General Election Commission) Decree No. 360 of 2024 on the Stipulation of the Election Results for Members of the DPR, DPD (Regional Representatives Council), Provincial and Regency/City DPRD nationally in the 2024 Election, announced nationwide on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at 22:19 WIB, specifically for the Papua Electoral Districts for filling membership in the Papua DPR. The petitioner also requests the Court to instruct KPU to recount the ballots for filling membership in the Papua DPRD at all polling stations (TPS) in the Jayapura City and Jayapura Regency.

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Golkar’s DPR Election Dispute Petition for Papua Province Deemed Inadmissible