The Petitioners’ legal counsel Maryanto Robert Sihotang (right) at the preliminary hearing of the Intan Jaya regent election results dispute, Wednesday (1/15/2025). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Candidate Pair 4 Apolos Bagau dan Tetairus Widigipa (Petitioners) petitioned the annulment of the Intan Jaya Regency KPU (Elections Commission) Decree No. 1042 of 2024 on the regent election results. Similar to the petition of Case No. 292/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025, they alleged that the KPU had not conducted the vote count recapitulation transparently.

The preliminary hearing for Case No. 310/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 was presided over by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Anwar Usman and Enny Nurbaningsih on panel 3 on Wednesday, January 15, 2025. The election featured five candidate pairs, with the following vote results: Candidate Pair 1 Anner Maisini-Igapa secured 43,535 votes, Candidate Pair 2 Marten Tipagau–Malianus Belau obtained 24,995 votes, Candidate Pair 3 Apolos Bagau–Tetairus Widigipa received 19,908 votes, Candidate Pair 4 Oni Dendegau–Aguni Tapani garnered 20,672 votes, and Candidate Pair 5 Bernadus Kobogau–Melianus Agimbau collected 15,884 votes.

Maryanto Roberto Sihotang, the Petitioners’ legal counsel, questioned the Intan Jaya KPU who finalized the vote count recapitulation without the participation of the representatives of the candidate pairs. To note, the recapitulation had been initially scheduled to begin on December 13 and to finish on December 14, 2024. However, due to protests from the witnesses of Candidate Pairs 2, 3, 4, and 5, the session was postponed.

On December 16, 2024, a digital document containing Intan Jaya KPU Decree No. 1042 of 2024 dated December 14, 2024 was broadcast via WhatsApp text. “We deem the results contained in the announcement delivered by the KPU as a covert announcement, Your Honors, because none of the candidate pairs was aware of it,” Sihotang asserted.

“Upon inspection, the attachment to Decree No. 1402 only had signatures from three KPU members. It did not have complete signatures, even Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) members did not sign it,” he continued.

The Petitioners argued that there is a mismatch between the plenary recapitulation results and the actual data on site observed in Agisiga, Tomosiga, Hitadipa, Wandai, and Ugimba Districts. While the Intan Jaya Bawaslu issued a recommendation for a recount, the KPU did not implement it.

“Based on our assessment, the Petitioners actually obtained 31,200 votes, Your Honors. That is the recapitulation results [received by] the Petitioners from the data received from mandate witnesses and others, that they have acquired more or less 31,200, the highest [votes in Intan Jaya regent election],” Sihotang said.

In their petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Intan Jaya KPU Decree No. 1042 of 2024 on the certification of the regent election results dated December 14, 2024 and to order the KPU to carry out a revote in the regency.

Also read: Intan Jaya KPU Accused of Secretly Certifying Elected Candidate

Author            : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor            : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                 : Tiara Agustina
Translator       : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

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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