JAKARTA, LEGAL LITERACY - The Constitutional Court (MK) on Monday (29/4/2024) held a preliminary hearing regarding the Dispute over the Results of the General Election (PHPU) for the election of candidates for members of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) in 2024 in the Central Papua Province Electoral District, as well as candidates for members of the Paniai Regency DPRD in the Paniai Electoral District 1 and 2. This case, with number 174-01-17-36/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024, was filed by the United Development Party (PPP).

The hearing, which was presided over by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, along with Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman and Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih, heard the petitioner's claims of fraud in the election of DPR members in several regencies in Central Papua.

Significant Discrepancies in Vote Counting

The petitioner, through his attorneys, Akhmad Leksono and Muhammad Sholeh Amin, argued that there were significant discrepancies in the vote count in the Paniai and Dogiyai regencies. Based on the Noken agreement held by the local tribal chief, the petitioner's legislative candidate, Albertus Keiya, should have received far more votes than recorded in the official recapitulation. Internal party calculations showed that Keiya received 65,587 valid votes, but only 1,025 votes were recorded.

“Based on the KPU's decision, the petitioner's votes are 1,025. According to us, the correct number is 65,587 votes,” said Akhmad Leksono.

The official vote recapitulation by the local General Election Commission (KPU) indicated that tens of thousands of votes for the petitioner disappeared. The petitioner suspects that this was part of a fraud involving the transfer of votes to another candidate, namely Komarudin Watubun from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP).

In addition to Paniai regency, similar irregularities were reported in other electoral districts in the same regency and in Dogiyai regency, where the votes that should have been obtained did not match the official KPU data. Other legislative candidates such as Yulius Kudiai and Agustinus Zonggonau also experienced similar issues with very low vote records compared to the claimed Noken votes.

Regarding this matter, the petitioner requests the Court to annul the General Election Commission Decree Number 360 of 2024 and order the KPU to conduct a re-vote in all regencies in Central Papua Province or at least return the votes as argued by the petitioner.