Papua Gubernatorial Election Dispute at Constitutional Court Continues to Evidence Hearing

JAYAPURA, KOMPAS — The Constitutional Court has declared that the dispute case regarding the Papua Gubernatorial Election submitted by the Mathius D Fakhiri-Aryoko Rumaropen pair will proceed to an evidentiary hearing. The evidentiary hearing is scheduled to be held on February 7-17, 2025.

The Dispute over the Results of the Papua Gubernatorial Election (PHPU) has been registered at the Constitutional Court (MK) with the number 304/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025. The hearing related to this case was held on Wednesday (5/2/2025).

In the first session that started at 08.00 WIB, the Constitutional Court read out decisions/rulings related to 49 cases. Seven of these cases were decided to proceed to the evidentiary hearing.

Constitutional Judge Arief Hidayat stated that the dispute over the Papua gubernatorial election is one of the cases that will proceed to an evidentiary hearing. "The evidentiary hearing will be held on February 7-17, 2025," he said in the session broadcast online.

In the evidentiary hearing, the agenda will include testimony from witnesses or experts. For provincial-level election disputes, the Constitutional Court limits the maximum number of witnesses or experts that can be presented to six.

Previously, the Mathius-Aryoko pair, through their legal representative Bambang Widjojanto, raised issues regarding several violations allegedly committed by candidate pair number 1, Benhur Tomi Mano-Yermias Bisai. One of these issues pertains to administrative violations by Yermias, which were presented in a hearing at the Constitutional Court on Wednesday (15/1/2025).

In their lawsuit, Mathius-Aryoko questioned the decision of the Papua Provincial General Election Commission (KPU) which approved Yermias as a candidate for deputy governor because Yermias was deemed not to meet the candidacy requirements. This relates to a certificate stating that he has never been convicted and is not currently deprived of his voting rights, which is suspected to have been forged.

In addition, the Mathius-Aryoko camp also alleged violations of official transfers by Yermias, who is the Regent of Waropen for the 2021-2026 period. Yermias is said to have transferred employees without written approval from the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) in August 2024, which is suspected to be for the benefit of the Papua gubernatorial election.

Meanwhile, the Benhur-Yermias camp rejected the accusations made by the Mathius-Aryoko pair. In the PHPU follow-up hearing at the Constitutional Court, Thursday (30/1/2025), Benhur-Yermias' attorney, Ronny Talapessy, said that the argument for violating requirements in the form of document falsification was a baseless accusation.

The Benhur-Yermias camp considered the issue of the certificate no longer problematic because it had been issued by the Jayapura District Court (PN). In fact, the certificate's validity had been tested at the Manado State Administrative Court (PTUN) up to cassation.

Meanwhile, the Papua KPU through its attorney, Erwin Hutagaol, stated that Yermias Bisai has met the requirements for nomination as a Deputy Governor of Papua. The Jayapura District Court has issued a certificate of never having been convicted and not having his voting rights revoked for Yermias Bisai on September 19, 2024.

In its statement, the Papua KPU stated that it had made a clarification to the Head of the Jayapura District Court on September 20, 2024. At that meeting, the Head of the Jayapura District Court also said that he had issued letters Number 844 and 845 dated September 19, confirming that Yermias Bisai had never been named a convict and had not had his voting rights revoked. Thus, the nomination requirements were met and were still in the registration stage before the determination of the candidate pair on September 22, 2024.

Meanwhile, on January 24, 2025, the Election Organizer Honorary Council (DKPP) imposed a stern warning sanction on the Papua KPU. Five members of the Papua KPU, including the Chairperson of the Papua KPU, were found to have violated the code of ethics related to Yermias Bisai's candidacy certificate.

In its decision, the DKPP considered that the KPU did not conduct an in-depth investigation into the disputed certificate.

For provincial election disputes, the Constitutional Court limits the number of witnesses or experts who may be present to a maximum of six.

As is known, the 2024 Papua gubernatorial election is contested by two pairs of candidates, namely the Benhur-Yermias pair supported by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI) Perjuangan and Mathius-Aryoko supported by the Advanced Indonesia Plus Coalition.

Benhur-Yermias, who are candidate pair number 1, won 269,970 votes or 50.7 percent. This achievement is 7,193 votes ahead of gubernatorial candidate number 2, Mathius-Aryoko, who won 262,777 votes or 49.3 percent.