Rumah Pemilu Indonesia Election Portal
Ahead of the 2024 regional elections, various problems that arise in the selection process and implementation of the duties of the General Election Commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) raise concerns regarding the integrity and fairness of election implementation. Since the process of forming the KPU and Bawaslu member selection teams in 2021, there have been signs of problems from the start.
“However, this process is not free from various problems that have a significant impact on the integrity of election organizers,” said researcher Kahfi Adlan Hafiz from the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) in the discussion “The Impact of Presidential Election Fraud on the 2024 Pilkada” at the ICW Learning House, South Jakarta (7/5).
Kahfi explained that the recruitment process for members of election management institutions is often inseparable from political influence. Even in the Philippines, KPU members are appointed directly by the president, whereas in other countries, the selection process is strongly influenced by the legislature. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the selection mechanism involves a selection team formed by the President and the DPR to screen hundreds of candidates until 14 remain, who are then submitted to the DPR.
“However, this process is not free from problems; there are concerns regarding the capacity and independence of the selected selection team members,” he explained.
He said that since the start of the 2024 elections, there have been many problems caused by election organizers, including the problem of manipulating political party verification data in the political party information system (Sipol). Several political parties, which should not have met the requirements due to a lack of membership or management in several regions, apparently had their data manipulated by the KPU to make them meet the requirements.
“Even though the Election Organizer Honorary Council (DKPP) made a decision that there was manipulation, the DKPP did not reveal further information about the origin of the order,” he explained.
Apart from that, the KPU is also considered to be less transparent in providing data that should be accessible to the public, including Bawaslu, which has supervisory authority. Ahead of the regional elections, the integrity of election organizers is still being questioned because they are considered close to power and election participants. This has the potential to reduce the independence and integrity of the election administration.
This was made clear by the issuance of KPU Regulation 10/2023 regarding the calculation of political women’s representation. Even though the Supreme Court (MA) considered that the regulation did not meet the requirement of 30% women’s representation and canceled the regulation, the KPU seemed to ignore it. As a result, many electoral districts did not meet the minimum number of women’s representatives of at least 30% in each electoral district.
“Another issue of concern is regional head candidates who have strong resources and political connections. “There are no clear regulations governing regional head officials who run in regional elections, opening up opportunities for abuse of authority and state resources,” said Kahfi. []
