Rumah Pemilu Indonesia Election Portal
Kalyanamitra’s research on gender-based violence (KBG) in the 2024 elections found several factors in the occurrence of KBG in the elections. These include the patriarchal culture that still persists in society, the imbalance in power relations between men and women, which causes many women to have difficulty accessing resources and education, and the lack of regulations protecting women. Existing policies regarding the elimination of sexual violence and political affirmation of women’s groups are often violated.
“If the policy already exists, for example, affirmative action on a minimum quota for women, it is still very difficult to comply with.” Violations of this policy are also not prosecuted,” said Kalyanamitra Knowledge Management Coordinator, Lailatin Mubarokah, at the discussion “Results of Monitoring Gender-Based Violence in Elections in Indonesia” (24/6).
In participating in the 2024 elections, female legislative candidates also experienced a number of obstacles, one of which was election organizers who did not have a gender perspective and did not understand the forms of KBG in elections. One example of KBG found by the Indonesian Women’s Coalition (KPI) was the destruction of billboards for female legislative candidates by drawing or writing sexist words on photos of female legislative candidates. This violation was not prosecuted by the General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu).
“For example, billboards, if they are installed incorrectly, for example, on a tree, that is a violation, but they will not be reprimanded. Then, when billboards violate road markings, they should be removed, but they aren’t. Well, there is a billboard that contains pictures of her (female legislative candidate’s) breasts; that is a violation and a sexist action. “Apart from that, public interest will affect the electability of female legislative candidates (who were victims of the billboard vandalism),” explained KPI Secretary General Mike Verawati in the same discussion.
Regarding the KBG issue in the election, Deputy Chair of the National Commission for Women (Komnas) for Women, Olivia Salampessy Latuconsina, encouraged Bawaslu to immediately create a quick response mechanism. A rapid response mechanism will help restore victims’ rights, prevent greater impacts from occurring, and act deterrently against perpetrators.
“Last June 10, we signed an MoU with Bawaslu. One of the scopes of our cooperation is to handle the monitoring and reporting of various KBG cases against women in elections. From Bawaslu, there will be technical guidance. “Well, we hope that in the future there will be a quick response mechanism that can be created immediately,” concluded Olivia in the same discussion.
To prevent and minimize KBG in elections, several civil society organizations have taken a number of steps. As stated in the discussion, Kalyanamitra, the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), and the Habibie Center provided political capacity-building training for female party cadres. Kalyanamitra, with partner organizations, also has a community mentoring program and increases public awareness of the KBG in elections. []
