The Respondent’s legal counsel Stefanus Budiman in the examination hearing for Case No. 201/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 concerning the Yapen Islands Regency election results dispute. Photo by MKRI/Ifa

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JAKARTA (MKRI) – All arguments presented in the Case No. 201/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 concerning the Yapen Islands regent election results dispute were rejected during the examination hearing on Thursday, January 30, 2025. The examination hearing was chaired by Chief Justice Suhartoyo and Constitutional Justices Foekh and M. Guntur Hamzah to hear the Respondent, the Relevant Party, and Bawaslu, as well as to prove evidence from all parties.

The Petitioners were the independent candidate pair Yuhendar Muabai-Yotam Ayomi. Meanwhile, the Yapen Islands Regency Elections Commission (KPU) became the Respondent.

As an independent candidate pair, Yuhendar-Yotam requested that all political party candidate pairs be disqualified and that all votes be transferred to them. However, the Respondent argued that this request was unreasonable as the Petitioners should have first requested a revote or sought to be declared as the sole candidates.

"So it does not mean that candidate pairs 1, 2, and 3 are immediately disqualified and all votes granted to the Petitioners. Of course, in reasonable reasoning, it is not like that," said the Respondent's legal counsel Stefanus Budiman.

Also, the Respondent testified to the Petitioners’ argument that they had not implemented the Court Decree No. 129-01-14-33/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, which impacted the certification of the 2024 Yapen Islands Regency candidate pair. In response, the Respondent confirmed that they had carried out the Court Decree by recapitulating the 2024 Yapen Islands legislative election. Yet, they admitted to having had a delay in its implementation due to issues at the district level.

"After opening the ballot box, it turned out that several C Results were not found and it took time to find them, so it was past the 21-day time limit," revealed Stefanus.

In line with the Respondent, Candidate Pair 1 Benyamin Arisoy-Roi Palunga as the Relevant Party also stated that the issue about the 2024 legislative election had been resolved through the implementation of the Court Decree No. 129-01-14-33/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024.

"Regarding the chronology of the implementation of the recapitulation after the Court Decree 129, it has been agreed upon by the mandate witnesses of the political party candidate pairs," stated the Relevant Party’s legal counsel Dhimas Pradana.

The Relevant Party argued that the delay in implementation has become the attention of the Yapen Islands Bawslu (Election Supervisory Body) by imposing sanctions on the Respondent.

The Yapen Islands Bawaslu confirmed to have pursued further the delay in implementing the recapitulation by issuing a verdict of warning to the Yapen Islands KPU.

"We, the Yapen Islands Regency Bawaslu, made it a finding which was then processed by the Papua Province Bawaslu with the verdict as we know, found guilty and gave sanctions to the Yapen Islands Regency KPU not to repeat the same thing," said the Head of the Yapen Islands Bawaslu Hofni Y Mandripon.

Yapen Islands Bawaslu acknowledged issuing four recommendations during the 2024 Yapen Islands regent election. These recommendations included a revote in two districts, which took place on December 2 and 6, 2024. The recommendations were made due to evidence of violations, including issues related to the opening of ballot boxes.

"In Poom 1 Village, it is related to the opening of ballot boxes which was carried out before the implementation date and this has been followed up by the KPU," said Hofni.

Also read: Yapen Islands Independent Candidate Pair Seeks Disqualification of Three Rivals

During the preliminary hearing, Yuhendar-Yotam, through their legal counsel, requested the Court to disqualify the other candidate pairs. They argued that all votes should have been transferred to them, resulting in the other candidates receiving zero votes. Their reasoning was based on the claim that the Respondent had disregarded Court Decree No. 129-01-14-33/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024. The Petitioners contended that the decree should be interpreted as a mandatory requirement for candidacy by political parties.

Thus, in the petitums, the Petitioners requested that the Court annul the Yapen Islands Regency KPU Decree on the certification of the 2024 Yapen Islands Regency election results.

Author: Ashri Fadilla
Editor: N. Rosi

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.

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