Legal counsel Haris Azhar testifying at the governor election results dispute hearing for Case No. 302/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2, Wednesday (1/15/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – The Citta Loka Taru Foundation (Lokataru) has filed a petition for the Highland Papua governor election results dispute to the Constitutional Court (MK). The preliminary examination hearing for Case No. 302/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 was presided over by Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2 in one of the courtrooms on Wednesday, January 15, 2025.

The Citta Loka Taru Foundation (Petitioner), represented by Delpedro Marhaen Rismansyah, stated that although the Petitioner is not a candidate, it seeks to present arguments for the Court’s consideration in recognizing the Petitioner’s legal standing. The Petitioner emphasized that it is a non-governmental organization with a mission focused on social, humanitarian, and religious causes. By establishing its legal standing, the Petitioner hopes to contribute to shaping a broader concept of legal standing, aspiring to align it with the law envisioned for the future.

“We do not intend to disregard, override, or violate the provisions of Constitutional Court Decision No. 3 of 2024, which stipulates that only candidate pairs comprising more than one person can file a petition,” stated Delpedro.

He further stated that Lokataru, as an organization, also operates as an election monitoring institution, utilizing academically-grounded methodologies supported by various FGDs and training sessions. He argued that if the Petitioner was deemed to lack legal standing in the general election contestation, it would effectively negate the role and participation of election monitoring institutions.

“As a relevant party, we had 11 petitions, 5 of which were rejected, and 6 remain without any response to this day. This indicates that if our position as a petitioner is rejected and our position as a relevant party is also rejected, then where does an election observing institution stand in contributing its participation?” argued Delpedro.

Furthermore, Delpedro explained that the Petitioner had undertaken various activities to enhance community participation in regional head elections and to ensure that the process adhered to the principles of honesty, fairness, and democracy. He noted that as part of its concrete contributions to the 2024 regional election, the Petitioner had secured accreditation as an election observer in the provinces of Papua, Central Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and the Special Region of Jakarta.

Based on these grounds, Delpedro argued, the Petitioner has legal standing and should be duly considered by the Court. This statement was made by Delpedro while reading the Petitioner’s legal standing.

Subject Matter

Delpedro revealed that a revote had taken place at 70 polling stations in Highland Papua Province: 40 in Yalimo Regency, 12 in Tolikara Regency, and 18 in Lanny Jaya.

“It was because a misunderstanding on the election system, whether to use the noken system or not,” he said.

He argued that the Highland Papua Provincial KPU (Respondent) did not have the capacity to organize the regional election in the province. He also asserted that the Respondent had failed to carry out its duties professionally and to provide legal certainty as he believes that the revote did not follow statutory provisions, in this case Article 79 of the KPU Regulation No. 17 of 2024.

As such, the Petitioner requested the Court to repeat all the election stages, from registration to the certification of the elected Highland Papua governor.

Also read the petition for Case No. 302/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025.

Author              : Ahmad Sulthon Zainawi
Editor                : N. Rosi
Translator         : Nazila Rikhusshuba/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL) (RA)

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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