Reject Dispute On Re-election Of Papuan Regional Head Elections, MK: Unproven Dalil

Constitutional Court (MK) Building in Jakarta. (ANTARA-Maria Rosari)

JAKARTA - The Constitutional Court (MK) rejected the dispute over the results of the re-voting (PSU) for the 2024 Papua Province Regional Head Election which was requested by candidate pair number 1 Benhur Tomi Mano and Constant Karma.

The Court in the trial of the pronouncement of the verdict stated that the arguments submitted by the Benhur-Constant pair were not fully proven so that they were not justified according to the law to be granted.

"In the main petition, rejecting the petitioner's application in its entirety," said Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Suhartoyo when reading the verdict Number 328/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 in the Plenary Court Session Room, Jakarta, Wednesday, was confiscated by Antara.

One of the Benhur-Constant arguments is that regarding the anomaly of voter data, especially the special voter list (DPK). According to them, the number of users of the right to vote in the DPK in simultaneous voting on November 27, 2024 must be the same as the DPK in the PSU on August 6, 2025.

Constitutional Justice Ridwan Mansyur said the argument was incorrect reasoning because the number of voters and users of the right to vote in the DPK was dynamic, depending on voter participation at certain times and places.

"No one has the right to force voters to vote or not to vote in holding elections, including regional elections (regional head elections)," said Ridwan reading out legal considerations.

Therefore, the Court did not get the belief that the number of voters was above 100 percent of the permanent voter list (DPT) which harmed Benhur-Constant or benefited the pair of candidates for governor and other deputy governor of Papua.

In addition, the petitioner also argued the involvement of state officials in the Papua Pilkada PSU, one of which was the Minister of Energy and Human Resources Bahlil Lahadalia who was suspected of campaigning for candidate pair number 2 Matthew Fakhiri and Aryoko Alberto Ferdinand Rumaropen.

Regarding the argument, Constitutional Justice Arsul Sani said that after examining the evidence, the Court found legal facts that Minister Bahlil had indeed visited various regions in Papua Province.

The visit, among others, was to Beber Village, Bonggo District, Sarmi Regency, on July 4, 2025; Tindaret Village, North Yapen District, Yapen Islands Regency, on July 24, 2025; and Owi Island, Biak Numfor Regency, on July 24, 2025.

"However, in the evidence submitted by the applicant, there are no indications of campaign activities or invitations to choose one of the candidate pairs participating in the Papua Province PSU Pilkada," said Arsul.

In addition, from a series of evidences in the form of videos of Bahlil's speech using party attributes on social media, Bahlil's video recordings participated in joint activities and healthy roads, to evidence of reports to Bawaslu, the Court did not find any election violations.

"Moreover, Bawaslu in his statement stated that he had followed up on reports regarding election violations by Bahlil Lahadalia. However, no violations were found," said Arsul.

The Papuan Pilkada PSU was held on the basis of the Constitutional Court's Decision Number 304/PHPU.GUB-XXIII/2025 which was pronounced in February 2025.

In that decision, the Constitutional Court disqualified the candidate for deputy governor number 1 Yermias Bani for defamation of the domicile address in the issuance of a certificate that was never convicted and was not being revoked.

The Constitutional Court ordered the KPU to organize a PSU by including Matthew Fakhiri and Aryoko Alberto as well as a new pair of candidates proposed by a political party or coalition of political parties that previously carried candidate pair number 1 without Yermias Bini.

The PSU was then held by the KPU on August 6, 2025. Yemias Biki, who was disqualified, was replaced by Constant Karma accompanying Benhur Tomi Mano.

Based on the results of the PSU, the Benhur-Constant pair received 49.6 percent of the votes, while the Matthew-Aryoko pair got 50.4 percent of the votes. With the rejection of Benhur-Constant's lawsuit by the Constitutional Court, Matthew-Aryoko's victory is now no longer being questioned.