Election of Regional Representative Councils Members with Noken System in Election Principle Perspective

Abstract

The holding of General Elections, including the election of members of the Regional Representative Council in parts of Papua, has its own character because its implementation is different from the general election. If all this time we only know that, the implementation of the General Election is carried out in a "direct, general, free and secret manner", then there are some areas in Papua that still use the general election with the noken/tie system. This is because the culture of indigenous peoples in the Papua region in terms of decision-making concerning common interests is carried out through deliberation meetings involving members of the community as a whole or certain people ("Men with authority" or "The Big Man") only as representatives to take a decision. This is also corroborated by the Constitutional Court Decision Number 47-81 / PHPU.A-VII / 2009 which basically states that they do not question the voting system used by indigenous peoples in the central highlands of Papua, because the essence of the General Election process is that everyone can exercise direct, public, free and confidential voting rights. With the implementation of the General Election (including the election of DPD members) with the noken/ikat system, it does not provide guarantees and legal certainty for the constitutional rights of voters to determine for themselves who they think is best based on their rational logic. Honesty does not only mean that no provisions in the General Election are violated or simply that no votes are manipulated. Honesty must also be interpreted as the system that most allows the people to elect candidates according to their conscience based on the capacity and integrity of the candidates.