The Relevant Party’s legal counsel Hardian Tuasamu at the examination hearing of the Paniai regent election results dispute case No. 291/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 to hear the Respondent, the Relevant Party, and Bawaslu and to validate evidence before panel 2 justices, Wednesday (1/22/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Paniai Regency Elections Commission (KPU) as the Respondent denied the allegation that it had eliminated or changed votes for Candidate Pair Number 2 Robby Kayame and Hengky Kudiai as the Petitioners of Case No. 291/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 in 14 districts. It would be difficult to ascertain the validity of photo evidence of the votes submitted to the tribal chief by the community, which the Petitioners had submitted, and they are not authentic and valid documents to prove a valid implementation of the noken* system.

“The Petitioner did not explain when the incident had occurred and the name of the perpetrators of the violation, therefore the Petitioners’ petition has no legal basis,” said the Respondent’s legal counsel M. Fadly Abd Rachman at the session to hear the Respondent’s response and testimonies by the Relevant Party and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) regarding the dispute over the 2024 Panai regent election results on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.

The Respondent also denied the allegation of lack of follow-up to Bawaslu’s recommendations on the cancellation of recapitulation in all districts in Paniai Regency. The Paniai KPU said they had followed up on Paniai Bawaslu’s recommendation by refusing to cancel the plenary recapitulation because there were no formal juridical reasons for it. According to the Respondent, the Paniai Regency Bawaslu should have provided a recommendation to make corrections after the confirmation of the candidates’ witnesses and the election results by the district election committee (PPD). If not, then the candidates’ witnesses should fill in an objection form.

Also read: Paniai Regent Election Dispute: Robby-Hengky Argues Election Never Happened

The Petitioners argued that the election had never taken place in the polling stations on November 27. In their petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to cancel the Paniai Regency KPU Decree No. 48 of 2024 concerning the certification of the vote acquisition of the 2024 Paniai regent election results dated December 14, 2024; to certify the correct vote acquisition according to the Petitioners: Candidate Pair Number 1 Yan Piet Nawipa-Ham Yogi with 16. 131 votes, Candidate Pair Number 2 Rooby Kayame-Hengki Kudiai (Petitioners) with 44,921 votes, Candidate Pair Number 3 Nason Uti-Jhon Deki Yogi with 23,963 votes, Candidate Pair Number 4 Thomas Yeimo-Yeri Adii with 24,330 votes, and Candidate Pair Number 5 Ottopianus Gobai-Deki Nawipa with 6,079 votes; or to order the Paniai Regency KPU to conduct a revote at 230 polling stations in 164 hamlets in 24 districts in Paniai Regency, Central Papua Province.

Candidate Pair Number 1 Yan Piet Nawipa-Ham Yogi (Relevant Party) requested the Court to reject the Petitioners’ petition in its entirety. They argued that the KPU Decree No. 48 of 2024 must remain in effect and that the Petitioners’ reasons and arguments on the number of the Petitioners’ votes claimed to have been lost by compared to the number of votes the Petitioners requested in the petitums were irrelevant.

“So, there is no correlation at all with the petition,” stated the Relevant Party’s legal counsel Hardian Tuasamu before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani on panel 2.

Meanwhile, Paniai Bawaslu member Yulimince Nawipa said there had been no objections to the vote difference and on the D-result forms in several districts. “There was also no objection at the district-level recapitulation, Your Honors,” he said.

*) 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         : Mimi Kartika
Editor          : Tiara Agustina
PR              : Fauzan Febriyan
Translator    : Dinita Aktivia/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

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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