JakartPost-Nov 15, 2023
As the 2024 general election draws near, civil society organizations are ramping up their efforts to monitor the electoral process, urging the public to also play their part in ensuring a fair and transparent election. There has been rising concern over electoral fraud and the impartiality of the state apparatus ahead of next year’s presidential and regional elections. In December of last year, a group of civil society organizations reported 11 commissioners of the General Elections Commission (KPU) to the Election Organization Ethics Council (DKPP) for allegedly manipulating data to allow four newcomer parties to contest the legislative election. A member of the regional elections commission (KPUD) in the Sangihe Islands, North Sulawesi, was fired for the incident, but the parties involved are still cleared to run in the elections.
On Monday, some civil groups also reported the KPU to the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) for failing to ensure that 30 percent of candidates who contest the legislative election are women, as mandated by the 2017 Elections Law. As per Nov. 1, the DKPP has received more than 280 reports of alleged electoral fraud and violations, including allegations that many Bawaslu members are affiliated with political parties. A recent scandal that embroiled the Constitutional Court, in which its chief justice Anwar Usman was found guilty of an ethics breach for using his position to sway a game-changing ruling on candidate eligibility for presidential elections, further deepened concerns over poll rigging. The ruling effectively enabled Anwar’s nephew-in-law, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s eldest son, to run for vice president. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/11/10/trump-mounts-legal-assault-as-barr-authorizes-probes-of-vote-irregularities.html.
