The ruling hearing for case No. 181/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 PHPU on the Deiyai regent election results dispute, Wednesday (2/5/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Court dismissed the petition for Case No. 181/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Muara Enim regent election results dispute, filed by Candidate Pair 3 Yan Ukago and Stefanus Mote (Petitioners). Chief Justice Suhartoyo delivered the verdict at the ruling hearing for this case on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.

In its legal considerations, the Court deems the Petitioners' allegation of the lack of noken system in Tigi Barat, Tigi Timur, Bouwobado, and Tigi Districts to be unreasonable according to law. The Court found no report or finding from the Deiyai Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) related the allegation in the areas disputed.

The Court emphasized that the implementation of the noken system in Deiyai Regency must be properly administered. Based on a legal fact, the Court found that the final agreement of the indigenous community had been listed in the official election documents at the polling stations, which are C-result forms and their attachments. The community agreement may only be reviewed or amended by the authorized parties according to the applicable laws and regulations. Thus, the Court recognizes the C-result forms as the valid administrative documents of the noken system in Deiyai Regency.

"Thus, the Court deems the Petitioners' argument, regarding the discrepancy of vote count between the Petitioners  and the Relevant Party due to violations and frauds committed by the Respondent and the Relevant Party by ignoring the noken system in five districts, is not legally justified," stated Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih.

Therefore, the Court sees no reason to disregard the provisions of Article 158 of the Regional Election Law, which sets a threshold for filing a regional election results dispute petition. The Court also found no special condition or incident that may override the article for this case.

"The Petitioners' vote acquisition is 16,206 votes, while the Relevant Party's vote acquisition is 28,057 votes, thus the vote difference between the two is 11,851 votes ot 15.01 percent, exceeding [the threshold of] 1,579 votes," Justice Enny added.

While the Petitioners are indeed a candidate pair in the 2024 Deiyai regent election, they did not satisfy the petition filing requirement set forth in Article 158 paragraph (2) letter a of Law No. 10 of 2016.

"Therefore, the Court declares the Petitioners have no legal standing to file the a quo petition. Thus, the Respondent's and the Relevant Party's exceptions regarding the Petitioners' legal standing is deemed reasonable according to law," Justice Enny concluded.

Also read:

KPU Allegedly Ignored Noken Votes, Deiyai Regent Election Result Challenged

KPU Denies Claims of Discrepancies in Deiyai Regent Election Results

At the preliminary hearing, Candidate Number 3 Yan Ukago and Stefanus Mote, the Petitioners of Case No. 181/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025, argued that there were negligence and discrepancies in the 2024 Deiyai regent election results through the noken* system.

The Petitioner argued that the Deiyai Regency KPU had committed violations by disregarding the results of the noken system, a local wisdom recognized under Indonesian law.

(*) The noken voting system is carried out by communities in Papua, either through public agreement on vote allocation or through the delegation of votes to a tribal leader.

Author  : Utami Argawati
Editor   : Lulu Anjarsari P.

PR: : Tiara Agustina

Translator     : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/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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