The Petitioner’s legal counsels Totok Prasetiyanto and Petrus Ohoitimur Subdria attending a ruling hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute for Central Papua Province, Thursday (6/6/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) handed down a ruling for the 2024 DPR-DPRD (House of Representatives-Regional Legislative Council) election results dispute petition for case No. 19-01-04-36/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 on Thursday, June 6, 2024. The case was petitioned by Golkar (Party of Functional Groups) for the electoral district of Deiyai Regency 2 and 3, Central Papua Province.

“[The Court] rejects the Petitioner’s petition in its entirety,” said Chief Justice Suhartoyo delivering the verdict.

In its petition, the Petitioner alleged discrepancies in the vote count for their candidate, Simon Edowai, for the Regency DPRD seat in Deiyai 2, claiming 2,361 votes compared to the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) or the Respondent’s count of 1,453 votes. According to the Petitioner, the discrepancy was due to the loss of votes for Simon Edowai at several polling stations (TPS).

“After examining the evidence prepared by the Petitioner, the Respondent’s answers, written evidence, and other submissions, as well as experts and witnesses presented by both the Petitioner and Respondent, along with Bawaslu’s statements and the facts revealed during the hearings, the Court is convinced by the testimony of the Respondent’s witnesses and the evidence submitted by Bawaslu, thus finds the Petitioner’s claims to be without legal merit,” said Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat.

The alleged loss of 908 votes for the Petitioner’s candidate at 6 polling stations in East Tigi District was found to be incorrect because the vote count on the D-result form had been recapitulated based on the C-result form, with the voting process in Deiyai Regency conducted using the noken/ikat system.

The Petitioner claimed 267 votes at TPS 003 and 270 votes at TPS 004 in Kokobaya Village. During the hearings, evidence showed that the Respondent’s witness, Albert Anton Doo, East Tigi district election committee (PPD) witness, stated that the votes at these polling stations were not attributed to Simon Edowai of Golkar but to another candidate, as witnessed by five KPU commissioners and three Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) members.

“The Court cannot believe the validity of the Petitioner’s claim because the vote count for the Petitioner’s candidate is inconsistent between the evidence presented by the Petitioner, the Respondent, and Bawaslu, making the Petitioner’s claim legally unfounded,” continued Justice Arief Hidayat.

After scrutinizing the Petitioner’s submission, the evidence provided by both the Petitioner and Respondent, Bawaslu’s statements, as well as witnesses’ and experts’ testimonies, and the legal facts revealed at the hearings, the Court noted that four polling stations lacked detailed location descriptions. The Petitioner also failed to specify the district locations and did not detail the vote counts per polling station according to its version.

According to the Court, the Petitioner’s claims could not be substantiated. Consequently, the Court found no need to further verify the Petitioner’s allegations, deeming them legally baseless.

In its ruling, the Court adjudicated to reject the exceptions of both the Respondent and the Relevant Party in their entirety. As for the subject matter, the Court dismissed the Petitioner’s petition in its entirety.

Also read:

Golkar Claims Vote Acquisition in Deiyai Regency 2 and 3

Noken Voting System in Deiyai

Author              : Siti Rosmalina Nurhayati
Editor                : Nur R.
PR                    : Fauzan Febriyan
Translator         : Sedanti Anjali Putri/Yuniar W.

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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