Krisna Petrus Ditubun testifying on behalf of the Aru Islands Regency KPU’s (Respondent) for case No. 67/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 at the hearing to hear the Respondent’s response and testimonies by the Relevant Party and Bawaslu, Thursday (1/23/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Aru Islands Regency Elections Commission (KPU) ensured that the implementation of the 2024 Aru Islands regent election was in accordance with the provisions, including the formal requirements. This was conveyed in the Respondent’s responses at the examination hearing for Case No. 67/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Aru Islands regent election results dispute, Thursday, January 23, 2025. This hearing was to hear the Respondent’s response and testimonies by the Relevant Party and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) as well as to validate evidence, presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah on panel 1.

The Petitioners are Candidate Pair Number 1 Temy Oersopiny, and Hady Djumaidy Saleh. The Relevant Party are Candidate Pair Number 2 Timotius Kaidel and Mohaad Djumpa.

The formal requirements in question relate to the certification of the Relevant Party, Timotius Kaidel, as Aru Islands regent candidate for 2024. The Petitioners argued that the Aru Islands KPU’s certification of Timotius as a participant in the 2024 regional election was not in accordance with the provisions due to his debt for a project.

As the organizer, the Aru Islands KPU explained that it had received a complaint by Victor F. Sjair regarding the matter. The KPU then asked the Relevant Party for clarification, both through the election candidacy information system (Silon) and offline.

“And the results are the same, [the allegation of debt] argued by the Petitioners is not proven, in our opinion,” said the Respondent’s legal counsel La Radi Eno.

The Respondent also sought clarification on the allegation from the Aru District Court on September 20, 2024. The Aru Islands Bawaslu also witnessed the clarification.

As a result, the court also found no irregularities which the Petitioners argued.

“Is there an Aru District Court decision or what is it?” asked Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh.

“It is a certificate, Your Honor,” Eno replied.

Clarification was also sought from the Aru Islands Regency Government as a party related to the road construction project, through a letter. However, the letter went unanswered until the deadline for the certification of candidate pairs.

“Therefore, we proceeded to the next agenda, the certification of the candidate pairs,” stated Eno.

The Respondent also explained that since the certification of the candidate pairs until the recapitulation results, the Respondent had never received a recommendation from the Aru Islands Bawaslu regarding the matter.

The absence of recommendation was confirmed by the Aru Islands Bawaslu at the same hearing. Bawaslu acknowledged that there was indeed an election dispute petition regarding the Relevant Party’s outstanding debt, which was seen to be detrimental to the state. However, the dispute petition was not registered because it lacked material requirements.

The Aru Islands Bawaslu also claimed that they had sent a letter to the election dispute petitioners to complete the petition by including the direct losses due to the Aru Islands KPU’s decision.

“The Aru Islands Bawaslu issued a notice on October 1, 2024 that could not be registered, which basically stated that the petition did not describe the direct loss, which is a material requirement,” claimed Aru Islands Bawaslu member Novita Ohoiulun.

Meanwhile, the Relevant Party ensured that the issue had been clarified by. The Relevant Party also claimed to have never been involved in the development project.

“In fact, there has never been any loan, let alone involvement in the construction of the company,” said the Relevant Party’s legal counsel Firman Wijaya.

Also read: Audit Board’s Findings on Aru Islands Regent Candidate Challenged

In the petition read out at the previous hearing, Tuesday, January 14, 2025, there the Petitioners raised an issue of formal requirement related to the certification of the Relevant Party as a candidate for the 2024 Aru Islands regent election. The reason was to the findings of the Audit Board (BPK) regarding the overpayment of the Tunguwatu-Nafar road construction project amounting to Rp 4,255,390,305.50.

Although the BPK issued a recommendation, the Petitioners said that the Aru Islands Regency KPU still determined the Relevant Party as a regent candidate. According to the Petitioners, this is a violation of the applicable provisions, so the certification of the Relevant Party as a regent candidate did not fulfill the formal requirements.

Also read:

Petition Case No.67/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025

Response by the Respondent

Statement by Bawaslu

Statement by the Relevant Party

Author            : Ashri Fadilla
Editor              : N. Rosi
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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