From Electoral Competition to Human Security Crisis: Polarization of the 2024 Puncak Jaya Regional Election in the Perspective of Human Security and National Security

Abstract

This article examines the 2024 local election in Puncak Jaya Regency as a case in which electoral competition escalated into a human security crisis and tested national security capacity in managing local political conflict. Using a human security approach, the article places citizens, rather than only the state and electoral institutions, as the primary referent object of security. The study applies a qualitative case-study method based on document analysis of Constitutional Court decisions, General Elections Commission documents, information from the Election Supervisory Body, credible news reports, local socioeconomic data, and recent academic literature on electoral violence, the noken system, social conflict, and national security. The findings show that the Puncak Jaya conflict cannot be reduced to a dispute over vote counting. It reflects the accumulation of elite polarization, vulnerability in electoral logistics governance, intimidation, identity-based and local-network contestation, and limited state protection for citizens. Violence involving clashes between supporters, house burnings, citizen evacuation, sabotage or seizure of electoral logistics, injuries, and fatalities demonstrates the collapse of three layers of human security: freedom from fear, freedom from want, and freedom to live in dignity. From a national security perspective, the case confirms that electoral integrity in conflict-prone regions is part of democratic national resilience. The article proposes a mitigation model that integrates electoral early warning, citizen protection, logistics security, customary de-escalation, and post-conflict recovery.

Keywords: local election, Papua, Puncak Jaya, human security, national security, electoral violence, noken system.