Constitutional Court Decides Papua and Papua Mountains Pilkada Dispute to Continue

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The Constitutional Court or MK stated that seven disputes over the results of regional head elections or pilkada out of 49 cases whose decisions/verdicts were announced on Wednesday morning (5/2/2025), will proceed to the evidence stage. Two of these cases are disputes over the results of elections at the provincial level, namely the election of the governor and deputy governor of Papua and Papua Pegunungan.

Meanwhile, the other five cases are disputes over election results at the regency level, namely Mandailing Natal Regency, Boven Digoel Regency, Jayapura Regency, Puncak Regency, and Puncak Jaya Regency.

"From this morning's session, a total of 49 cases have been invited to the hearing. Of the 49 cases, 42 cases have had their decisions and rulings pronounced. There are seven cases whose decisions and rulings have not been pronounced because these seven cases are continuing to further evidentiary hearings," said Constitutional Judge Arief Hidayat, Wednesday (5/2/2025) in the first/morning session led by Chief Justice Suhartoyo.

In addition to the results of the trial the previous day, it means that 27 cases have proceeded to the evidence stage out of a total of 180 cases for which decisions/rulings have been read. As is known, on Tuesday (February 4, 2025), the Constitutional Court decided to continue the examination of 20 cases while 138 other cases were dismissed.

As for the cases declared dismissed on Wednesday morning due to issues of legal standing or unclear/obscure petitions, there are 40 cases.

Among them are the regional election disputes in Dogiyai Regency, Teluk Wondama, Kerinci (three cases), Tidore Islands City, Mappi Regency, South Ogan Komering Ulu Regency, Biak Numfor Regency, Fak-fak Regency, Raja Ampat Regency, Pegunungan Bintang Regency (two cases), and others.

At the provincial level, the dispute over the election of the governor and deputy governor of Central Papua with case number 302/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 also did not proceed to evidence. Meanwhile, the dispute over the regional election of South Papua Province, registered with case number 105/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025, was withdrawn or revoked by the petitioner.

The Constitutional Court received two applications for disputes over the election results for the Papua Pegunungan Province.

In case 302/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 filed by the Citta Loka Taru Foundation represented by its legal team Haris Azhar, the Constitutional Court declared that it could not accept the petition.

Loka Taru is considered not to have legal standing as a dispute applicant, given that it is not a candidate pair in the election for governor and deputy governor of Papua Pegunungan, which was contested by more than one candidate pair.

"There is also no reason for the Court to provide legal standing for the applicant in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 paragraph (1) of PMK 3/2024. Nevertheless, the Court appreciates the intention and efforts of the applicant in submitting the aquo application as a form of democratic development for the people in the Papua Mountains Province, including in this case the activeness of the applicant's Foundation in overseeing the implementation of the regional head elections, in casu in Papua Mountains," said the Constitutional Court judge.

Despite stopping the Citta Loka Taru Foundation's application, the Constitutional Court decided to continue the dispute application filed by the Papua Pegunungan gubernatorial and deputy gubernatorial candidate pair, Befa Yigibalom-Natan Pahabol, who challenged the victory of the Jhon Tabo and Ones Pahabol candidate pair due to alleged intimidation.

Ali Nurdin, Legal Counsel for the General Election Commission from seven electoral districts stated that two cases proceeded to the evidentiary hearing, while five others were rejected. The cases that proceeded to the evidentiary hearing included the Regent-Deputy Regent of Tasikmalaya and the Governor-Deputy Governor of Papua Pegunungan.

The dispute from Tasikmalaya with Case Number 132/PHPU.BUP-XXIII/2025 is related to the term of office of the reported party, namely the pair Ade-Sugianto and Iip Miftahul Paoz who are considered to have served for two terms. Meanwhile, in Case Number 293/PHPU.gub-XXIII/2025, the Candidate Pair for Governor-Deputy Governor of Papua Pegunungan Befa Yigibalom and Natal Pahabol sued the victory of the pair Jhon Tabo and Ones Pahabol because of alleged intimidation.

"The Court in its considerations stated that there were special incidents related to the term of office. For Papua Pegunungan, further evidence is needed related to the alleged intimidation or threats. The Court wants to look further into the existing evidence," he said.

The other five areas that were rejected came from Southwest Sumba Regency (East Nusa Tenggara), Teluk Wondama Regency (West Papua), Manokwari and South Manokwari Regencies (West Papua), and Mamberamo Raya (Papua).

According to Ali, the rejected cases were deemed insufficient to prove that a special incident affected the election results. For several areas in West Papua, the applicants did not have legal standing on the grounds that the arguments submitted were baseless.