The Petitioners’ legal counsel Moin Tualake at the preliminary hearing for Case No. 215/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the Tambrauw regent election result dispute, Thursday (1/16/2025) in panel 3 courtroom. Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The 2024 Tambrauw regent-vice regent election sparked controversy after allegations of the improper implementation of the noken* system, which is not applicable to Tambrauw Regency. The Petitioners, Candidate Pair 1 Yohanis Yembra-Petrus Yewen, argued that, based on the General Elections Commission (KPU) Decree No. 1774 of 2024 on the technical guidelines for voting, Tambrauw Regency employs a ‘one person, one vote’ mechanism.

Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat chaired the hearing for case No. 215/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on Thursday, January 16, 2025 alongside Constitutional Justices Anwar Usman and Enny Nurbaningsih in panel 3 courtroom. The Petitioners’ legal counsel Moin Tualeka stated that at polling stations in the regency that used the noken system, witnesses had been prohibited from documenting or filming the voting process. The election organizer and village heads allegedly made such prohibitions, as stated in the P-5 evidence submitted in the Tambrauw regent election dispute.

“There were instances where the voting used the noken mechanism, despite the Tambrauw Regency not using this system,” Tualeka emphasized.

Tualeka also mentioned alleged violations in the form of intervention against voters in several districts. The hamlet and district heads allegedly instructed villagers to vote for Candidate Pair 2 in districts including Bamusbama (all hamlets), Tobouw (all hamlets), and South Miyah (Sahae hamlet).

In addition, a serious violation involved Tambrauw interim regent Engelbertus Kocu, who was not neutral in the election. In September 2024, he allegedly directed civil apparatus (ASN) to support a particular candidate pair during the morning assembly at the Tambrauw regent office.

In the petition, the Petitioners state that on Friday, November 29, 2024, during a morning assembly at the regent office, Engelbertus Kocu openly announced the victory of Candidate Pair 2 despite the ongoing vote recapitulation. This violates the neutrality of a government official and the principles of direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair election as stipulated under Article 2 and 3 of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections and Article 2 paragraph (1) and (2) of the KPU Regulation No. 17 of 2024.

As such, the Petitioners request the Court to annul the vote recapitulation results and to order a transparent revote in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

*) 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              : Utami Argawati
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                     : Tiara Agustina
Translator          : Ryan Alfian/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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