Ucok Edison Marpaung (left), the Petitioners' legal counsel at the preliminary hearing of the Jayapura regent election results dispute, Wednesday (1/15/2025). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.
JAKARTA (MKRI) — Regent Candidate Pair 3 Jan Jap L Ormuseray-Asrin Rante Tasak petitioned the annulment of the Jayapura KPU (Elections Commission) Decree No. 227 of 2024 due to the Jayapura KPU's (Relevant Party) lack of implementation of revote in several polling stations as recommended by the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu).
The preliminary hearing for Case No. 274/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. There were four candidates competing in the election, in which Candidate Pair 2 Yunus Wonda-Haris Richard Yocku Erin won election with 22,386 votes while the Petitioners acquired 21,202 votes.
Ucok Edison Marpaung as legal counsel said that the Petitioners protested the vote acquisition in 14 polling stations across six districts. Out of the 14 polling stations protested by the Petitioners, eight received a recommendation from Bawaslu; yet, the Jayapura KPU dismissed it.
"After the voting on November 27, 2024, Bawaslu issued a revote recommendation for 18 polling stations in eight districts in Jayapura Regency. However, only 10 polling stations carried out a revote. The Jayapura KPU did not conduct a revote in eight polling stations, namely four polling stations in Sentani District, one polling station in Demta District, one polling station in Nimboran District, one polling station in Waibu District, and one polling station in Depapre District," Ucok explained.
"Because the Jayapura KPU did not implement revote in the eight polling stations, the Court has grounds to annul the 2,737 votes in the eight polling stations and order the Respondent to conduct a revote there," he continued.
As for the 10 polling stations in which a revote occurred, there was intimidation that threatened the voters from using their voting rights at Polling Station 4 in Doyo Village, Waibu District. So according to the Petitioners, the 307 votes cast at that station are illegitimate.
Intimidation and Noken System
Ucok said that there was mass mobilization of ineligible people from other districts at five polling stations, namely Polling Stations 5, 8, 11, 12, and 14 of Lapua Village, Kaureh District.
"Thus, the people who are registered in the DPT (final voters list) did not dare to come to the TPS and use their voting rights, because of the threat of mass mobilization at the polling station," he said.
At Polling Station 12 of Lapua Village, there were allegedly mobs driving out the polling station working committee (KPPS) and they simulated a noken* system that gave the votes to Candidate Pair 2. Meanwhile, the KPU Regulation No. 1774 of 2024 on the Technical Guidelines for the Implementation of Polling and Vote Count in the Election of Governor and Vice Governor, Regent and Deputy Regent, and Mayor and Deputy Mayor, Jayapura Regency no longer utilizes the noken system.
In their petitums, the Petitioners request the Court to annul the Jayapura KPU Decree No. 227 of 2024 on the Amendment to the KPU Decree No. 226 on the certification of the regent election results as long as it pertains to the vote acquisition in four polling stations in Sentani Village (Polling Station 7 of Sentani Kota Village, Polling Station 17 of Hinekombe Village, and Polling Stations 1 and 4 of Sereh Village); one polling station in Demta District (Polling Station 2 of Ambora Village); one polling station in Nimboran District (Polling Station 1 Kuwase Village); two polling stations in Waibu District (Polling Station 3 of Bambar Village and Polling Station 4 of Doyo Baru Village); one polling station in Depapre District (Polling Station 1 of Wabena Village); and five polling stations in Kaureh District (Polling Stations 5, 8, 11, 12, and 16 of Lapua Village. Furthermore, the Petitioners requested the Court to order the Jayapura KPU to conduct a revote in the polling stations mentioned above.
"[The Petitioners request the Court] to order the Indonesian National Police and the Indonesian National Armed Forces to secure the revote process through the vote count recapitulation," said Bansawan, another legal counsel of the Petitioners.(*)
*The noken voting system is carried out by communities in Papua, either through public agreement on vote allocation or through the delegation of votes to a tribal leader.
Author : Nawir Arsyad Akbar
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR : Tiara Agustina
Translator : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/FS
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.
Wednesday, January 15, 2025 | 13:44 WIB 23