The Sarmi Regency Bawaslu’s Chairperson, Obet Cawer testifying at the examination hearing to hear the Respondent’s response and testimonies by the Relevant Party and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body). Photo by MKRI/Ifa

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JAKARTA, MKRI - The issue of money politics was discussed in the hearing of the Petition Case No.155/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 regarding the 2024 Sarmi regent election results dispute. The hearing was held on Thursday, January 30, 2025, in the Courtroom (MK) with the agenda of hearing the Respondent’s response and testimonies by the Relevant Party and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) as well as to validate evidence. The hearing was presided over by Chief Justice Suhartoyo (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah on panel 1.

The petition was filed by Candidate Pair Number 2, Yanni and Jemmi Esau Maban. The Respondent is the Sarmi Regency General Election Commission (KPU), while the Relevant Party is Candidate Pair Number 1, Dominggus Catue and Jumriati.

In this hearing, KPU Sarmi explained that the alleged structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) money politics violation, as argued by the Petitioners, falls under the authority of the Papua Province Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu). As the Respondent, KPU Sarmi stated that it did not receive any recommendations related to this matter.

“The Respondent, in certifying the election results, has never received a decree from the Papua Province Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) regarding the existence of structured, systematic, and massive violations in the implementation of the 2024 Sarmi Regent Election,” stated the Respondent's legal counsel, Soetjahyono Tukiran.

During the 2024 Sarmi regent election, the Respondent claims to have carried the election in accordance with applicable regulations. The Petitioners’ argument that rejected the votes obtained in the 2024 Sarmi regent election due to violations was also said by the Respondent to be assumptive. According to the Respondent, the allegations of violations were not explained in detail by the Petitioners.

“The Petitioners do not explain which provisions and regulations were violated by the Respondent,” asserts Tukiran.

The Relevant Party also rejected the argument in the Petition regarding money politics. This is because there are no summons or sanctions imposed by the Sarmi Regency General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the Papua Provincial Bawaslu.

“Even the Petitioners admitted that the Petitioners report was not followed up by Bawaslu because the Petitioners did not have sufficient evidence,” stated the Relevant Party’s legal counsel, Imam Sutopo.

The Relevant Party also responded to the issue of ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup (SARA) which was also argued by the Petitioners. The Relevant Party considered that the issue had no relevance to the results of the 2024 Sarmi regent election. According to the Relevant Party, the issue was also a response from the Petitioners’ campaign team.

“The ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup (SARA) issue argued by the Petitioners has no relevance to the election result because the demonstration that occurred was a response to the issue raised by Ibu Yani's campaign team,” Imam explained.

As for the steps in the 2024 Sarmi regent election, the Sarmi Regency Bawaslu ensured that it did not issue any recommendations. But so far, there have been 36 reports received by Bawaslu Sarmi.

Of the 36 reports, 14 were not registered due to insufficient evidence. The rest were registered until the reports were forwarded to the Integrated Law Enforcement Centre (Gakkumdu).

“There were 15 [reports] registered, discussed in the Gakkumdu, and seven [reports] that we recommended to investigators to carry out investigations to the Police,” stated the Chairperson of Bawaslu Sarmi, Obet Cawer.

Of the seven reports that have progressed to investigation, three are currently in trial. According to Obet, the three cases will be read out in trial on Monday, February 3, 2025. Meanwhile, the other four are not being processed due to insufficient evidence.

Also read:

Apparatus’ Involvement, Intimidation in Sarmi Regency Revealed

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioners argued some issues in the 2024 Sarmi regent election. There was the alleged involvement of the state civil apparatus (ASN) connected to the position of the Relevant Party and several money politics practices violations, the money that was distributed to the public was in varying nominal amounts, ranging from Rp 100 thousand to Rp 300 thousand. There was also the issue of ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup (SARA) that was allegedly conducted by the Relevant Party.

The existence of a Notice to Vote that did not reach the voters and the failure to match the identity of voters at various polling stations also contributed to the petition of this case. The Petitioners also brought up intimidation by the Supervisory Committee against the Petitioners and intimidation of Candidate Number 2 by the Chairman of the KPPS.

Read more:

Petition Case No.155/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/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.

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