Former constitutional justice Maruarar Siahaan (second from left) testifying as an expert for the Petitioners at the evidentiary hearing for Case No. 305/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the 2024 Puncak Jaya regent election results dispute, Thursday (2/13/2025). Photo by MKRI/Panji.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held the evidentiary hearing for a petition on the 2024 Boven Digoel regent election results dispute on Thursday, February 13, 2025. The Petitioners, Regent Candidate Pair 1 Yuni Wonda–Mus Kogoya, presented a number of experts and witnesses, one of whom is law lecturer at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yance Arizona. At the hearing, Yance emphasized the importance of serious sanctions to the practices that undermine democracy as well as to violence in elections. He noted that the measures act as conditioning tools for all of the national elements and for maintaining the harmony of the nation.

“[Actions] undermining democracy and violence in elections must be penalized seriously. The sanction that is most appropriate and in accordance with the principles of democracy is disqualification or victory annulment for candidates proven to have committed vote manipulation and violence to obstruct the electoral democratic processes,” Yance stated before Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat (panel chair), Anwar Usman, and Enny Nurbaningsih on panel 3.

Yance added that the people’s safety is a key priority in organizing elections. The civil and political rights may be limited to maintain security and order.

“In certain conditions, the people’s safety is the law at the highest level. If the political rights have been granted and fulfilled, then the provisions of the election process have been fulfilled,” Yance explained.

At the hearing, Yance also highlighted indications of election violence in Puncak Jaya Regency. Many contestants, he noted, had impaired the organizer’s attempt to establish a peaceful election.

“Violence, such as forceful frequent seizure of logistics, showed the organizer’s failure to ensure a peaceful and fair election. To date, there has been no serious act or sanction to the candidates committing such violence and seizure,” he insisted.

Furthermore, he explained that the terms of disqualification in the Election Law are still limited. So far, disqualification is only possible in three situations: the abuse of government programs and reshuffle of officials by an incumbent, vote buying, and receipt of unlawful election funding.

Preserving the Purity of Votes

Meanwhile, the Puncak Jaya Elections Commission (KPU) as the Respondent presented Ida Budhiati, a member of the Election Organizer Ethics Council (DKPP), as an expert. Ida testified that the most important principle in an election is to preserve the integrity of votes so that the results and processes can be accepted by all parties.

“In that context, it is understandable that each stage has its own resolution forum and designated timeframe. Hence, once an issue is heard by the Constitutional Court, the preceding resolution stages must be firstly examined,” she explained.

She added that the election legal paradigm requires evidence that is convincing and significantly impacting the overall vote acquisition to demonstrate a violation. This principle is key to maintaining the constituents’ trust in the candidates they elect.

The panel also heard the testimony of the Central Papua Provincial KPU commissioner Mariius Telenggen, who detailed the chronology of the alleged logistics takeover. He explained that the vote count recapitulation in the regency had begun on December 30, 2024. However, after completing the first stage, the process came to a halt.

“The vote recapitulation began on December 30, 2024. However, from January 2 to 11, 2025, the process stopped without a clear reason, even though all of the commissioners were present during the process,” he revealed.

In addition, he stated, at the time the Central Papua Provincial KPU stepped in to take over the process, nine districts had not conducted recapitulation and four of them had not even conducted the election.

“When the Provincial KPU took over, the remaining nine districts had not yet been recapitulated. Four districts among them had not conducted election,” he added.

Telenggen denied the accusation alleging him of instructing the logistics distribution in Mulia District. “If someone said I ordered [the logistics distribution] in Mulia District, that was not true. We merely monitored the site,” he refuted.

Statements by Central KPU

The General Elections Commission (KPU RI) chairperson Mochammad Afifuddin attended the hearing and detailed the issues at the recapitulation processes in Central Papua. The situation was not unique to the 2024 regional election, but also happened in the preceding legislative election.

“[I] would like to state that during the legislative election, Central Papua was relatively earlier [to recapitulate] compared to the other regions in Papua. However, the situation was different for the regional election, considering issues in a number of regencies, such as in Highland Papua, Tolikara, and Paniai. It was triggered by tension and friction among the candidate pairs,” Afifuddin explained.

He went on to state that the recapitulation process had begun on November 30, 2024 as scheduled. However, on December 7, 2024, the Central Papua KPU asked the Central KPU for advice to handle the obstacles resulting from incidents of violence in several districts.

“We instructed the recapitulation at the district level to be carried at the KPU location until December 11, 2024. However, by the deadline, the recapitulation plenary [session] could not be completed,” he explained.

In response, the Central KPU issued a follow-up letter to extend the recapitulation deadline to December 14, 2024. “Security and order are our main priorities in carrying out the democratic process. We hope that all stakeholders can maintain the conduciveness of the situation in order to achieve transparent and accountable election results,” he concluded.

The panel also heard a testimony by Sepo Nawipa, a witness for the Respondent. Nawipa revealed that the Puncak Jaya Regency KPU arrived in Nabire on December 14, 2024 with votes from the 22 districts for which a plenary recapitulation session had not taken place. The plenary session took place on December 14 and 15, yet, by December 16, not one district succeeded to finalize its recapitulation.

“Since [the recapitulation] has not been completed, the plenary session was moved to the [office of] Nabire RRI (State Radio Network), which was considered to be accommodating and safe. However, until December 16, not one district succeeded to conduct the plenary. The situation prompted the Central Papua KPU to take firm actions by taking over the ongoing reading of recapitulation,” Nawipa noted.

The process went on until December 17 and was finalized on December 18, 2024. However, only two members of the regency KPU—the chairperson and the legal department coordinator—attended, hindering the certification of the results.

Clashing Testimonies

At the hearing, the testimony by the Petitioners’ witness contradicted that of the Relevant Party’s. Pametson Gire, a campaign team member in the data division reported that logistics at the Puncak Jaya KPU office had been seized on November 26, 2024. The Relevant Party came with their supporters at 19:15 WIT.

“Candidate Pair 2 came to the KPU office fully armed. They mobilized mass and brought weapons—daggers, and arrows. As soon as they arrived, they went inside [the office]. There was a riot before they came. I was called by phone by a witness at the KPU office since there was going to be an agreement to divide the [ballot] boxes the following day,” Gire revealed.

However, Daniel Telenggen, the Relevant Party’s mandate witness in Mulia District, testified differently. He denied riot and seizure reported by Gire.

“I myself was inside the KPU office and I did not see any seizure happening. [The ballots] were handed directly by the Puncak Jaya Regency KPU chairperson to the chairperson of the Mulia district election committee,” Telenggen contradicted.

Instead, Telenggen accused the Petitioners’ supporters of violence, destruction of tables in the plenary room, and intimidation to the officers of the Puncak Jaya Regency KPU and Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body). He also said the supporters had threatened to not recapitulate the election results.

“We were in the plenary meeting room. There, Candidate Pair 1 stated, which I hear myself, that the Puncak Jaya Regency KPU should not recapitulate, should not continue the recapitulation,” he explained.

Also read:

Question Raised Over Alleged TSM Violations in Puncak Jaya Regent Election

KPU Denies Allegations of Vote Transfer in Puncak Jaya Regent Election

At the preliminary hearing on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Candidate Pair 1 Yuni Wonda-Mus Kogoya filed a petition with Case No. 305/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 on the Puncak Jaya regent election results dispute to the Court as they had found structured, systematic, and massive (TSM) violations that significantly affected the vote results. The Petitioners revealed numerous violations such as alleged conditioning of election logistics by Candidate Pair 2 in four districts as follows: Mulia, Tingginambut, Gurage, and Lumo.

Author         : Utami Argawati
Editor          : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR              : Tiara Agustina
Translator   : M. Hafidh Al Mukmin/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL) (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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