The Petitioner’s legal counsel Akhmad Leksono attending a ruling hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute of Papua Pegunungan Province, Monday (6/10/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.
JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) rejected the 2024 DPR-DPRD (House of Representatives-Regional Legislative Council) election results dispute petition for case No. 130-01-17-37/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024.The case was petitioned by PPP (United Development Party), for the Yahukimo Regency DPRD election in electoral district (dapil) 5. In its legal considerations, the Court stated that the General Elections Commission or KPU (Respondent) needed to improve the vote administration mechanism to be more adaptive to the cultural values of those who still use the noken system.
“The Court noted that there are several notes in the implementation of voting using the noken system that need to be seriously considered by the election organizers, the government, political parties, indigenous/tribal leaders, and the community in general to make improvements to reduce potential problems in every election in the future, especially related to electoral infrastructure, administrative mechanisms or data recording, to dissemination of the implementation of the noken system, in addition to what has become the Court’s stance in previous decisions,” said Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh alongside the other eight constitutional justices in the plenary courtroom on Monday, June 10, 2020.
The Court believes that the noken system must still be seen as an instrument to fulfill every citizen’s right to vote and run for election, especially for people who still embrace the concept of Big Man in their daily lives, so that the implementation of political contestation would not cause damage and division in the social order. Therefore, election organizers must facilitate the rights in question, which certainly requires more attention and special handling, different from other regions given the demographic and geographic realities in Papua Pegunungan.
Concerning the election infrastructure, the most important thing is the technical understanding of implementation in the field by the KPU apparatus and logistics at polling stations. In this regard, the Court needed to emphasize the importance of data recording mechanisms related to voter data, ballots, and certain events that are closely related to the election implementation.
The KPU Decree No. 66 of 2024 has regulated in detail procedures for implementing voting, starting from deliberations to making decisions on votes for election participants before the voting day, voting by tribal chiefs based on the results of deliberations on the voting day, to recording data of voters who are present by KPPS. The most important thing is the administration or recording of vote count data in the C-result form as the basis for vote counting at the next level. The vote acquisition data at the polling station is expected to minimize potential for differences in the vote counting results.
In this case, the KPU Decree No. 66 of 2024 has also prohibited PPS (polling committee), PPK/PPD (subdistrict/regency election committee), or regency KPU from making changes to election results at polling stations. This means that after the process of voting by the chief at the polling station, there are no more agreements to transfer or change the vote acquisition.
However, the Court did not have confidence in the validity of the data in the C-result form in a number of polling stations because the process of data recording or data entry conducted by the KPPS was not under the applicable procedure and technical instructions. Therefore, the Court believes the KPU needs to improve the mechanism for administering the noken system.
Justice Foekh stated that there are at least two options regarding the utilization of the C-result form at the polling stations, i.e. maintaining the filling of the vote acquisition data as a result of the agreement of the residents at the polling stations and then recording it onto the C-result form of each polling station or eliminating the C-result form and directly recording votes onto the D-result form, which must be consistent from/to the polling station level onwards.
Both of these options must go through a comprehensive assessment process by the KPU based on knowledge and experience in organizing elections with the noken system. To ensure that the improvement process run well, it is essential to disseminate the information to the community and election candidates as well as local media and indigenous/community leaders.
“This is necessary so that all parties truly understand the mechanism or the way the noken system works, so that with the broad exposure of adequate information, the noken can be surely exist as an adaptive local wisdom in areas that still apply the system under the provisions,” Justice Foekh explained.
Also read:
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KPU Challenges PPP’s Inconsistent Claim on DPR Election in Papua Pegunungan
PPP’s Election Dispute Petition in Papua Pegunungan Province Declared Inadmissible
PKN Candidate Concedes Votes to PPP Candidate in Yahukimo 5
Chief Justice Suhartoyo said that the Court rejected the Petitioner’s petition on the vote acquisition of the Yahukimo Regency DPRD candidate for electoral district Yahukimo 5. The Court announced Decision No. 130-01-17-37/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 at a plenary hearing which was open to the public on May 22, 2024. In the interlocutory verdict, before handing down the final verdict, the Court stated that the Petitioner’s petition regarding the vote acquisition of DPR candidates in electoral district Papua Pegunungan was inadmissible.
Author : Mimi Kartika
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR : Fauzan Febriyan
Translators : M. Ariva Aswin Bahar/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.
Monday, June 10, 2024 | 17:23 WIB 103