The Relevant Party’s legal counsel Dedy Mulyana testifying at the examination hearing of the 2024 regent election results dispute case No. 124/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 before panel 2 justices, Wednesday (1/22/2025). Photo by MKRI/Teguh.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The West Sumba Regency Elections Commission (KPU) as Respondent denied the arguments made by Candidate Number 3 Agustinus Niga Dapawole and John Lado Bora Kabba (Petitioners) who stated that the Respondent had provided the final voters list (DPT) to the Petitioners without the resident identity number (NIK), making it difficult for the Petitioners to correct the voter data. This was conveyed at the examination hearing for Case No. 124/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. The agenda of this hearing was the Respondent’s response and testimonies by the Relevant Party, and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) as well as the validation of evidence.

The Respondent’s legal counsel Dedy Mulyana explained that the drafting of the final voters list had followed procedure. On September 20, 2024, the final voters list for the 2024 West Sumba regent election was certified in the West Sumba Regency KPU Decree No. 364 of 2024. The submission of the copies of the list, Dedy said, had also been in accordance with Article 45 of the KPU Regulation No. 7 of 2024.

“During tiered plenary sessions starting from the village, district, and also at the regency level, throughout the process, there were no objections,” said West Sumba Regency KPU (Respondent) chairman Teguh Rahardjo when asked by Constitutional Justice Arsul Sani whether or not there had been any objections from the Petitioners during the list certification.

Dedy also responded to the Petitioners’ objection to the final voters list that did not contain the NIK. He said the objection should have been raised after the certification of the temporary voters list (DPS) on August 10, 2024 and also after the final voters list certification on September 20, 2024. Furthermore, the Petitioners’ objection is not under the West Sumba KPU’s authority but Bawaslu’s. Moreover, the Petitioners did not raise any objections when receiving the final voters list from the Respondent, which means that the they did not exercise their right to object.

The legal counsel of Candidate Pair Number 2 Yohanis Dade and Thimotus Tede Ragga (Relevant Party) Jimmy Setiawan Natalianto Daud also provided information on the Petitioners’ arguments, which the Relevant Party believe cannot be legally justified. This is because there were no objections from the Petitioners during the voting process, vote counting, and up to the recapitulation process of the vote count results. Moreover, the witnesses of the candidate pairs signed the minutes and certificates of vote count results at the polling stations.

Also read:

West Sumba Regent Election Result Dispute: Missing National Identity Numbers in Final Voters List

The West Sumba Regency Bawaslu, represented by Sri Demu Alemina Br. Bangun, stated that the West Sumba Regency Bawaslu had not received reports or findings of election violations.    

 

Also read:

Petition for Case No. 124/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025

Response by the Respondent

Statement by Bawaslu

Statement by the Relevant Party

 

Author          : Ahmad Sulthon Zainawi
Editor          : N. Rosi
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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