The Petitioners’ legal counsel Baharudin Farawoman (center) at the preliminary hearing for the 2024 Tolikara regent election dispute Case Number 306/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025, Thursday (1/16/2025) Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Tolikara Regent-Vice Regent Candidates Number 1 Irinus Wanimbo and Arson R. Kogoya have filed a petition to the Constitutional Court (MK), alleging violations in the vote recapitulation process. They believe the KPU (Elections Commission) had taken actions that were not following procedures, thus potentially harming their vote acquisition.

The Petitioners’ legal counsel Baharudin Farawowan said that the district-level vote recapitulation process in six districts—Wugi, Aweku, Kembu, Nunggawi, Air Garam, and Yuneri—had not been completed. The Respondent had allegedly ordered the district election committee (PPD) to move the recapitulation location to the Tolikara Regency KPU office. That action resulted in the loss of the Petitioners’ votes. Under Article 16 paragraph (5) of the KPU Regulation Number 18 of 2024, the transfer of the recapitulation location can only be done under certain conditions and must be accompanied by a KPU decree. Therefore, the transfer was carried out without a clear legal basis.

“The recapitulation process at the Tolikara Regency KPU office has been completely taken over by the Respondent. In fact, according to Article 3 Paragraph (1) of KPU Regulation Number 18 of 2024, the recapitulation authority is in the hands of the PPD. This takeover is considered a procedural violation that undermines the principles of democracy,” stated Farawowan.

Furthermore, in the recapitulation process led by the Respondent, the PPD was not allowed to read and match the data in the district D-result KWK model forms as stipulated in Article 30 paragraph (6) letter h of the KPU Regulation Number 18 of 2024. As a result, the election results that had not been certified at the district plenary meeting were immediately recognized as official results without going through proper verification process.

According to the Petitioners, before continuing the plenary meeting of the vote acquisition recapitulation at the Tolikara Regency KPU level, the Respondent should have first completed the objection forms related to the vote acquisition that had been filled in by the Petitioners’ witnesses in six districts: Wugi PPD, Aweku, Kembu, Nunggawi, Air Garam, and Yuneri. The objections should have been included in the regent/mayor D-result district-KWK model forms before determining the minutes and certification of the vote counting results from the districts in the 2024 regent elections.

The Petitioners request the Constitutional Court to cancel the results of the vote recapitulation determined by the Respondent and order a re-recapitulation following the mechanism stipulated in the laws and regulations.

Author              : Utami Argawati
Editor                : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR                     : Tiara Agustina
Translator          : Dinita Aktivia/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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