ANFREL Highlights Abuse of State Resources in the 2024 Election

The Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), together with the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), the Voter Education Network for the People (JPPR), and the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP), released the final international monitoring report on the 2024 election. They noted that the misuse of state resources is an important thing to improve ahead of the 2024 simultaneous regional elections.

Perludem Executive Director, Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyati, said that in general, the problems in the 2024 election are contained in the main petition for the 2024 PHPU Presidential Election at the Constitutional Court (MK). During the trial, the Constitutional Court rejected the application because it felt that it was not convinced by the evidence, but the Constitutional Court also admitted that the proof time in PHPU was very short. He mentioned these problems, including the legitimacy of the vice president, social assistance, mobilization and neutrality of the ASN, procedures for holding elections, and the use of Sirekap.

“Even though the Constitutional Court rejected all these arguments because they did not convince the court, this should not be normalized in the implementation of elections, especially since the regional elections will be held soon,” said Khairunnisa in the “Report Launch and Discussion: Consolidating CSO Efforts to Strengthen Democracy in Indonesia” in Cikini area, Jakarta (7/6).

Regarding the politicization of social assistance, Ninis said that social assistance was included in the PHPU’s legal considerations. The Constitutional Court realized that visiting areas where social assistance was distributed had an impact on the fairness of the election-holding process. For this reason, according to him, political education should be carried out not only before the election, with material on election techniques but also democratic values in elections.

“So that young voters who may not have the science can have considerations when choosing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of KIPP, Kaka Suminta, considers this important because democracy in Indonesia has a tendency to return to authoritarianism. Moreover, he views the role of civil society in the 2024 elections as being weaker, amidst the many problems in organizing elections.

“The 2024 election will experience a deficit in electoral justice,” said Kaka. []