The Petitioner’s legal counsel La Ode Muhammad Rusliadi Suhi attending a ruling hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute case No. 158-02-16-37/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, Monday (6/10/2024). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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The Petitioner’s legal counsel La Ode Muhammad Rusliadi Suhi attending a ruling hearing for the 2024 legislative election results dispute case No. 158-02-16-37/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, Monday (6/10/2024). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) declared the dismissal of the district election committee (PPD) due to external interference or demands unjustified and unobjective. Even if there was an ethical violation by election organizers, in this case Maima PPD, due to discrepancies between the subdistrict D-result form and the C-result form, there were still mechanism for cross-checking and verifying vote counts.

“The Court could not assess the legality of the interim dismissal and appointment of PPD. However, factually, the Court found that this issue triggered changes in the vote count recapitulation at the Jayawijaya Regency level,” stated Justice M. Guntur Hamzah on Monday, June 10, 2024 while reading the Court’s legal considerations for case No. 158-02-16-37/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, filed by Perindo candidate Festus Asso.

Justice Guntur explained that the Court had examined and compared the subdistrict D-result form submitted by the General Elections Commission (KPU) and Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu). The Court found discrepancies in the submitted evidence. On the subdistrict DPRPP D-result form submitted by the KPU, many corrections with white-out were found, and new entries were handwritten. For instance, PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) candidate Bertus Asso had a final count of “three thousand,” and Semi Hisage from PAN (National Mandate Party) had a final count of “four hundred.”

Similarly, in evidence submitted by Bawaslu, numerous white-out corrections were found, showing final vote counts for Bertus Asso as “three zero zero zero” and for Semi Hisage as “four hundred thousand.” The Court determined that the sub-district Maima District D-result form submitted by  the KPU and Bawaslu were unreliable and invalid, especially since neither provided the C-result copy for comparison.

“To ensure the integrity of the votes for the House of Representatives (DPR) for Papua Pegunungan in Maima District and to uphold direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair democratic election, the Court deems it necessary to conduct a revote in Maima District, Jayawijaya Regency, Papua Pegunungan 1,” explained Justice Guntur.

Re-vote Ordered for Papua Pegunungan 1 DPRP

Chief Justice Suhartoyo announced that the Court granted the petition partially. The DPR votes for Papua Pegunungan candidates in Asotipo, Popugoba, and Maima Districts will be recalculated through a revote.

“The Court orders the Respondent to conduct a revote in Asotipo, Popugoba, and Maima Districts, Papua Pegunungan Province, within 45 days of this ruling and to finalize the vote counts without further reporting to the Court,” stated Chief Justice Suhartoyo.

The Court directed the KPU and Bawaslu to oversee the revote and instructed the Indonesian National Police, specifically the Papua Regional Police and Jayawijaya Police Resort, to safeguard the revote process. Other aspects of the petition were denied.

Also read:

Perindo Candidate Claims Election Mismanagement Caused Zero Vote

KPU Denies Reducing Votes of Perindo in Papua Electoral District 1

PPD in Papua Pegunungan 1 Dismissed, Nasdem Votes Vanish

In its petition, the Petitioner mentioned that the replacement of the old PPD with the new PPD in Papua Pegunungan 1 resulted in vote miscounts, especially in Assotipo, Popugoba, and Maima Districts. The Petitioner claimed that 19,383 votes were lost to candidates from other parties in these districts. In its petitum, the Petitioner requested the Court to establish the correct vote count for the Petitioner for the DPRP Papua Pegunungan Province in Papua Pegunungan 1, specifically attributing 19,383 votes to Perindo (United Indonesia Party) candidate Festus Asso.

Author              : Mimi Kartika
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                    : Fauzan Febriyan
Translators        : 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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