The Petitioners’ legal counsels Annisa Diva P. and Edison Marpaung at the preliminary hearing of the Central Papua election results dispute for case No. 308/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025, Thursday (1/16/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.
JAKARTA (MKRI) – At the 2024 Central Papua gubernatorial election results dispute hearing, allegations of money politics in Deiyai and Puncak Jaya District were raised. This issue is among the arguments presented in Case No. 308/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025, filed by Candidate Pair 02 Natalis Tabuni-Titus Natkime.
The petition was read at the preliminary hearing presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justice Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah on Panel 1 on Thursday, January 16, 2025.
The Central Papua Provincial KPU (Elections Commission) is the Respondent and Candidate Pair 03 Meki Nawipa–Deinas Geley is the Relevant Party.
The Petitioners’ legal counsel Ucok Edison Marpaung explained that the Relevant Party had committed money politics in the 2024 Central Papua gubernatorial election by giving out Rp700 million to the Tigi Barat district election committee (PPD) in Deiyai Regency.
“Similarly, East Digi PPD received Rp600 million, Kapiraya PPD received Rp500 million, Tigi PPD received Rp750 million, and Bodokapa PPD received Rp500 million,” said Marpaung at the preliminary hearing.
The Petitioners claimed that in Puncak Jaya Regency, the head of a political party regency branch had distributed Rp23 billion in cash to manipulate the vote results from the noken* system.
“[Money politics] happened at polling stations in villages to change the regency-level recapitulation,” said Marpaung.
Such violations are contrary to Article 73 paragraph (1) of Regional Election Law No. 10 of 2016, stating that candidates and/or the campaign team are prohibited from promising and/or granting money or other goods to influence the election organizers and/or voters.
Regarding the noken system commonly used in several areas of Central Papua, the Petitioners argued that significant changes occurred at many polling stations in Intan Jaya, Puncak, Puncak Jaya, Dogiyai, Paniai, and Deiyai Regencies. They claimed that votes were lost during the regency-level recapitulation, as indicated by discrepancies between the C-result and D-result model forms in their possession.
Specifically, in Paniai Regency, the Petitioners mentioned that riots had broken out due to an effort to cancel or change the noken agreement.
“[Because] the people rejected it, it resulted in riots, and the authorities even had to intervene to break up the recapitulation process,” he said.
Therefore, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Central Papua Provincial KPU Decree No. 461 of 2024 concerning the certification of the 2024 Central Papua Province gubernatorial election results. They also requested the Court to order the Central Papua Provincial KPU to carry out a revote in Intan Jaya Regency, Puncak Regency, Puncak Jaya Regency, Dogiai Regency, Paniai Regency and Deiyai Regency.
*) 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.
Also read the following petitions on the 2024 Central Papua gubernatorial election:
Also read:
Noken System Violation in Central Papua Gubernatorial Election
Central Papua Regional Election: Delay in Vote Recapitulation Announcement
Author : Ashri Fadilla
Editor : N. Rosi
Translator : Syifa Amelia/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.
Thursday, January 16, 2025 | 15:54 WIB 211