The Respondent’s legal counsel Fadly ABD Rachman (the third left) in the examination hearing for Case No. 305/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 concerning the Puncak Jaya Regency election results dispute, on Thursday (1/30) in the panel 3 courtroom. Photo by MKRI/Bayu

---

JAKARTA (MKRI) – The examination hearing for Case No. 305/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 concerning the Puncak Jaya regent election results dispute was held to hear the Respondent, the Relevant Party, and Bawaslu (Election Supervisory Body) on Thursday, January 30, 2025. The hearing pointed out the argument filed by Candidate Pair 01 Yuni Wonda-Mus Kogoya (Petitioners) about the election process in various districts such as Mulia, Pagaleme, Ilamburawi, and Dokome.

The Petitioners argued that there were additional invalid votes—8,506 votes for the Petitioners and 23,539 votes for the Relevant Party. In response, the Respondent, represented by legal counsel Fadli Abd Rahman, denied the existence of these extra votes. Furthermore, the Respondent disclosed an incident on November 26, 2024, involving the unauthorized retrieval of election logistics from the Puncak Jaya Regency KPU (Elections Commission) Office. The incident was witnessed by the Head of the Puncak Jaya Regency KPU, Bawaslu (Election Supervisory Body), and security forces.

The Petitioners also cited the seizure of election logistics on November 26 and 27, 2024, in several districts, which caused a delay in the plenary vote recapitulation. In response, the Respondent explained that the seizures were triggered by threats of violence from certain groups and had been reported to the police. Consequently, the Puncak Jaya Regency Bawaslu issued a recommendation to halt the recapitulation process in Mulia and Lumo Districts.

Fadli stated that during the regency-level plenary recapitulation meeting, the Respondent conducted a plenary session based on the recommendation of the Puncak Jaya Regency Bawaslu, deciding not to recapitulate the vote results for Lumo and Mulia Districts. However, the Respondent was unable to hold a plenary session to exclude the vote results for Tingginambut and Gurage Districts, as the matter had already been taken over by the Central Papua Province KPU.

“On November 30, 2024, the Puncak Jaya Regency Bawaslu issued a recommendation to disqualify the vote acquisition of each candidate pair in Mulia District, Lumo District, Gurage District, and Tingginambut District. This is following the Puncak Jaya Bawaslu recommendation," Fadli asserted.

Further, Fadli explained that from November 30 to December 2, the recapitulation was carried out in Mulia district, but due to security concerns and unfavorable conditions, the Puncak Jaya Regency KPU only recapitulated four districts.

"Due to security concerns, the Respondent has also submitted a letter regarding the issue. As a result, the instructions from the province were subsequently transferred to the Capital of Central Papua Province in Nabire," explained Fadli.

The Puncak Jaya KPU during the recapitulation plenary session, decided not to conduct a recapitulation for the district as recommended by Bawaslu. However, after the Central Papua Province KPU took over, the vote recapitulation for the district was still carried out.

Relevant Party Denies Petitioners’ Allegation

The Relevant Party, represented by legal counsel Zulham Effendi, refuted the Petitioners’ allegations of violations in the 2024 Puncak Jaya regent election. Zulham argued that the Petitioners failed to provide sufficient evidence to support their claim that the Relevant Party engaged in money politics, including offering or providing money to influence election officials or voters, as stipulated in Article 4, paragraph (1) of Bawaslu Regulation 9/2020.

Zulham further revealed that it was the Petitioners who were found to have committed a violation. The Petitioners were allegedly distributing 50 million rupiah along with food supplies across all districts in Puncak Jaya Regency. "On the contrary, the Petitioners have engaged in the actions outlined in Article 4, paragraph (1) of Bawaslu Regulation 9/2020, distributing 50 million rupiah and food supplies to all districts in Puncak Jaya Regency. This is supported by evidence in the form of a screenshot from the social media account of the Petitioners’ campaign team, under the account 'Wonda Kogoya Jilid II,' which has been actively used since the Petitioners was officially a candidate pair," he stated.

Zulham further stated that the Petitioners failed to clearly explain the alleged increase or decrease in votes for both candidate pairs 1 and 2. Additionally, the argument about the forced seizure of election logistics in several districts was refuted with solid evidence, including photos, videos, and the C-Results-KWK-Regent Model, which demonstrated that no such forced seizure had occurred.

The Relevant Party also denied the allegations that the election logistics in various districts such as Mulia, Lumo, Tingginambut, and Gurage were at the house of vice-regent candidate 2. Zulham stated that such allegations were not supported by accountable evidence.

Finally, in response to the Petitioners’ request to halt the vote counting recapitulation in several districts, the Relevant Party argued that this request was unfounded, as no evidence of logistics confiscation. Thus, they requested that the argument be dismissed.

Puncak Jaya Bawaslu Recommendation

Meanwhile, the Head of Puncak Jaya Bawaslu, Marinus Wonda, stated that Bawaslu had issued six recommendations regarding the regional election process in the region. Four of these recommendations were related to the collection of ballot boxes in Mulia, Gurage, Tingginambut, and Lumo Districts.

"The collection of ballot boxes in Mulia District and Lumo District was done in Puncak Jaya Regency with Bawaslu, KPU, and security forces. However, the situation at that time was considered stressful and unfavorable," said Marinus before the Court.

He further explained that in Gurage District, based on the supervision report from the Gurage District Panwaslu (Election Supervisor) on November 27, 2024, candidate pair 2’s campaign team committed a seizure of Pilkada logistics. It involved intimidation and threats against election officers.

Meanwhile, in Lumo District, Panwaslu's supervision found that the voting at the Pruleme GOR as agreed upon by the community and the district head–was canceled. Instead, ballot boxes were forcibly taken from the KPU office under pressure from a group armed with sharp weapons, firearms, and arrows, who were suspected to be candidate pair 2’s campaign team.

Marinus further explained that in Pageleme District, the supervision report documented the confiscation of the D-Results by the Head of the Pageleme District supervisory committee, who then took them to the secretariat of candidate pair 2. The vote recapitulation in Pageleme District was eventually carried out based on the C-Results collected by the community. Following this, the Puncak Jaya Bawaslu forwarded a recommendation to the Puncak Jaya KPU, suggesting that the votes in Tingginambut District be disqualified. Additionally, the recommendation called for a re-recapitulation of votes in Mulia, Lumo, Gurage, and Tingginambut Districts.

Furthermore, on November 30, 2024, Puncak Jaya Bawaslu forwarded another recommendation to disqualify votes in Gurage District. Thus, Puncak Jaya KPU carried out vote recapitulation in the four districts.

Also read: Question Raised Over Alleged TSM Violations in Puncak Jaya Regent Election

In the preliminary hearing on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, candidate pair 01 Yuni Wonda-Mus Kogoya filed a petition concerning the Puncak Jaya regent election results dispute to the Court as they found structured, systematic, and massive violations that significantly affected the vote results.

The Petitioners’ legal counsel Hardian Tuasamu revealed numerous violations such as alleged conditioning of election logistics by candidate pair 2 in four districts as follows: Mulia, Tingginambut, Gurage, and Lumo.

In the petitums, the Petitioners requested that the Court grant the Petitioners’ petition in its entirety. Besides, they requested that the Court annul the Puncak Jaya KPU Decree No. 476 of 2024 concerning the certification of the 2024 Puncak Jaya regent election results dispute dated December 18, 2024 at 06:32 Local Time, as long as the vote count in Mulia, Lumo, Tingginambut, Gurage, Pagaleme, Dokome, Kalome, and Ilamburawi Districts.(*)

Author: Utami Argawati
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR: Tiara Agustina

Translator:Syifa Amelia/FS (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.

---