JAKARTA, Legal Literacy - The Constitutional Court (MK) held a preliminary hearing for case number 281-02-14-36/PHPU.DPR-DPRD-XXII/2024 on Monday (29/04/2024) afternoon to review alleged fraud in the Legislative Elections (Pileg) in the Central Papua Electoral District (Dapil) 2, Central Papua Province. This petition was filed by Bartolimeus Mirip, a candidate for DPRD member from the Democratic Party with ballot number 2, who alleges that there was vote manipulation in the vote count.

In the preliminary hearing led by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, accompanied by Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman and Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih, the petitioner, through his attorney, claimed to have evidence of obtaining 24,870 votes. However, the official results of the General Election Commission (KPU) showed that his votes were zero.

“The Respondent determined the Petitioner's votes to be zero, even though the Petitioner's votes should have been 24,870 votes,” said Sahlan Adiputra Alboneh.

Bartolimeus suspects that the loss of votes in three districts, which is equivalent to the number of votes he claims, was caused by fraudulent actions by several members of the District Election Committee (PPD) and the Polling Station Committee (PPS).

Furthermore, Bartolimeus suspects that the missing votes were transferred and added to the number of votes of other candidates in the same election, but the petitioner, represented by his attorney, does not know where the votes went.

On this basis, the Petitioner, through his attorney, requests the Court to grant his petition in its entirety, annul General Election Commission Decree Number 360 of 2024, and determine the correct vote acquisition results according to the Petitioner.