The Respondent’s legal counsel Petrus Nawipa at the examination hearing for Case No. 296/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 regent election results dispute before panel 2 justices, Wednesday (1/22/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Paniai Regency Elections Commission (KPU) as the Respondent denied the Petitioners’ claim that the regency’s KPU chairman and members had been caught red-handed with Rp200 million bribery in the hands of the Paniai KPU secretary, which has not been forwarded to the Police. The Respondent argued that such an incident, which was alleged by the regent-vice regent candidate pair 4 Thomas Yeimo and Yeri Adii, never happened.

“The Respondent would like to assert that there was no arrest by the Police for the allegation of bribery made by the Petitioners,” explained the Respondent’s legal counsel Afif Rosadiansyah. The statement was made at the examination hearing for case No. 296/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. At the session, the panel heard the Respondent’s response as well as testimonies by the Relevant Party and the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu).

The Respondent stated that the allegation of bribery to secure the win for candidate pair 1 Yan Piet Nawipa-Ham Yogi was not based on actual facts. They clarified that the money was that of the chairman of Paniai KPU. The meeting of Paniai KPU chairman, members, and secretary with the Paniai police chief and head of operations of Paniai Police on December 9, 2024 was to discuss security preparation for the regency-level vote recapitulation results.

The Respondent stated that there had been riots causing the community to feel tense and anxious. Hence, the Paniai KPU chairman wanted to use his own money to support the security of the recapitulation plenary meeting, as the Paniai KPU secretariat did not have any cash on hand on December 2024.

If the act is categorized as an election criminal offence, it will be addressed by the Integrated Law Enforcement (Gakkumdu) until a final and legally binding court decision. The Respondent stated that the bribery allegation was not accompanied by valid evidence and was based on assumption. Therefore, the Respondent requested the Court to reject the Petitioners’ petition.

Meanwhile, candidate pair 1 Yan Piet Nawipa-Ham Yogi (Relevant Party) stated that the Election Organizer Ethics Council (DKPP) had issued a decree on the bribery allegation this morning. The Relevant Party stated that the activity was based on the Paniai Regency KPU’s request to safeguard the plenary meeting for the regency-level vote recapitulation results.

“Thus, there is no relation whatsoever [between the money and] the Relevant Party,” said the Relevant Party’s legal counsel Hardian Tuasamu.

Furthermore, the Paniai Regency Bawaslu member Yulimince Nawipa stated that they had not received any report and/or finding of election violations related to the bribery allegation in the Paniai regent-vice regent election. “Paniai Bawaslu never received any report of election violation of alleged bribery by Paniai KPU commissioner as argued by the Petitioners,” he explained.

In their petitums, the Petitioners requested the Court to annul the Paniai KPU Decree No. 48 of 2024 on the certification of the Paniai regent election vote acquisition dated December 14, 2024, and to certify the correct vote acquisition as follows: candidate pair 1 with 23,082 votes, candidate pair 2 with 17,395 votes, candidate pair 3 with 43,364 votes, candidate pair 4 with 18,271 votes, and candidate pair 5 with 7,316 votes. Alternatively, they requested the Court to order the Paniai KPU to do a revote across all polling stations, villages, and districts in the regency.

Author          : Mimi Kartika
Editor            : Tiara Agustina
PR                : Fauzan Febriyan
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.