Legal counsel Azham Idham (left) and Andi Firmansyah (right) in the preliminary hearing for Case No. 292/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 in the Panel 3 Courtroom. Photo by MKRI/Bayu

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – Candidate Pair 02 Marten Tipagau–Malianus Belau filed a petition to annul the Intan Jaya Regency KPU (election commission) Decree No. 1042 concerning the certification of the 2024 Intan Jaya Regency election results, dated December 14, 2024. They argued that the KPU of Intan Jaya Regency, as the Respondent, issued the decision to certify the election results in secret.

The preliminary hearing for Case No. 292/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 concerning the Intan Jaya Regency election dispute was presided over by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat (panel chair) along with Constitutional Justices Anwar Usman and Enny Nurbaningsih on Wednesday, January 15, 2025. The election featured five candidate pairs, with the following vote results: Candidate Pair 01 Anner Maisini-Igapa secured 43,535 votes, Candidate Pair 02 Marten Tipagau–Malianus Belau obtained 24,995 votes, Candidate Pair 03 Apolos Bagau–Tetairus Widigipa received 19,908 votes, Candidate Pair 04 Oni Dendegau–Aguni Tapani garnered 20,672 votes, and Candidate Pair 05 Bernadus Kobogau–Melianus Agimbau collected 15,884 votes.

The Petitioners’ legal counsel, Azham Idham, stated that Intan Jaya KPU did not conduct the vote recapitulation on December 13, 2024, as it was supposed to be completed by December 14, 2024, citing the disputes among the witnesses for candidate pairs 02, 03, 04, and 05, which led to the decision to postpone it.

On December 16, 2024, a digital file containing the Intan Jaya Regency KPU Decree No. 1042 concerning the certification of the 2024 Intan Jaya Regency election results, dated December 14, 2024, was circulated via a short message application. The decree included the "Third" dictum, which stated: "The Results of the 2024 Intan Jaya Regency election, as referred to in the First and Second dictums, are certified and simultaneously announced on Saturday, December 14, 2024, at 11:30 Local Time."

“After the postponement on December 13, the parties never received a recall. Then secretly, the KPU based on the Decree that we received from the WhatsApp message that the Petitioners received, was set on the 14th (of December) and the Decree was circulated on the 16th (of December),” Hamzah revealed in the Panel 3 Courtroom.

The Petitioners argue that the above issue supports their allegation that the Intan Jaya Regency KPU showed partiality toward Candidate Pair 01, who received the highest number of votes. They further contend that the recapitulation process was incomplete, as the witnesses for Candidate Pairs 02, 03, 04, and 05 staged a protest on December 13, 2024.

The debate from the witnesses of candidate pairs 02 to 05 occurred because the Intan Jaya Regency KPU conducted the vote recapitulation based on the D-Results District, which were suspected of being manipulated as the recapitulation results in the field and those reported by the Intan Jaya Regency KPU were different.

Following the issuance of the Decree mentioned above, the Petitioners reported to the Intan Jaya Regency Bawaslu. In response, the Intan Jaya Regency Bawaslu issued Letter No. 279/PM.00.01/Kab.PPT-08/XII/2024 concerning the recommendation for the annulment of the certification of the vote recapitulation results on December 16, 2024.

The recommendation stated that "Based on this, the Intan Jaya Regency Bawaslu RECOMMENDS: 1. Annulment of the certification of the recapitulation results until all election result documents in the form of C-Results and D-Results District forms, or other documents are submitted completely and transparently to the Intan Jaya Regency Bawaslu".

“Since the recommendation was issued, neither the candidate pair's witnesses nor Bawaslu were ever present on the 14th [December]. They were not present, Your Honor because the issue was that on the 13th (December) there should have been a postponement. Then we didn't know anything, the candidate pair didn't know anything, on the 16th (December) they just received a message in WhatsApp. At that time, the team was holding a demonstration in front of the KPU, then suddenly a WhatsApp message circulated among the demonstrators regarding the certification of the candidate pair" said Azham. 

In the petitum, The Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Intan Jaya Regency KPU Decree No. 1042 concerning the certification of the 2024 Regency election results, dated December 14, 2024, at 11:30 Local Time. The Petitioners also propose another alternative petitum for the Court would annul the Decree mentioned as long as it concerns the vote acquisition in Agisiga District, Tomosiga District, Hitadipa District, Wandai District, and Ugimba District.

Furthermore, the Petitioners certified that the correct vote results of the Intan Jaya Regency election according to them were that Candidate Pair 01 Anner Maisini–Elias Igapa won 30,536 votes, Candidate Pair 02 Marten Tipagau-Malianus Belau won 31,762 votes, Candidate Pair 03 Apolos Bagau–Tetairus Widigipa received 23,000 votes, Candidate Pair 04 Oni Dendegau–Aguni Tapani gained 23,920 votes, and Candidate Pair 05 Bernadus Kobogau–Melianus Agimbau obtained 15,776 votes.

“Or [we requested the Court to] order the Intan Jaya Regency KPU to do a revote in Intan Jaya Regency or at least in Agisiga District, Tomosiga District, Hitadipa District, Wandai District and Ugimba District,” asserted Andi Firmansyah, another legal counsel.(*)

Author              : Mimi Kartika

Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.

PR                     : Fauzan Febriyan

Translator          : Syifa Amelia/ Fuad Subhan

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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