T

he country'€™s law enforcement bodies must remain politically neutral ahead of the elections to ensure that their powerful resources are not used to manipulate the election, analysts and observers have warned.

Speaking in a discussion on Tuesday, University of Indonesia (UI) defense and security expert Edy Prasetyono said the coercive authority and nationwide operation of the Indonesian Military (TNI), for example, would tempt military officials to support the campaigns of certain political parties or presidential candidates in exchange for political or financial gains.

Among the common methods used by these individuals, according to Edy, are intimidating voters and giving direct orders to subordinates.

'€œThere is no doubt that the TNI still has a very strong capacity to do that [interfere], especially in the country'€™s remote areas,'€ he said.

Combining advanced equipment with elaborate tactics, the country'€™s intelligence bodies could also easily manipulate the results of the election through discreet methods, including psychological warfare and computer hacking, UI'€™s Center for International Relations Studies (CIReS) researcher Hariyadi Wirawan said.

'€œThe KPU [General Elections Commission], for example, should be aware of any [intelligence] attacks on their IT system that could manipulate the results of the elections,'€ he said.

Hariyadi, however, said that most of the election-related intelligence operations had been initiated by individuals without the acknowledgement of their organizations.

The KPU is currently organizing 545,778 polling stations to accommodate some 186 million registered voters across the country for the April 9 legislative election.

Many politicians have repeatedly criticized the KPU for its allegedly unreliable IT system. Last month, the KPU'€™s website was reportedly not accessible for several hours allegedly due to a hackers'€™ attack.

'€œThe recent KPU website malfunction is proof that the KPU'€™s IT system is vulnerable to manipulation,'€ Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) deputy secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto said recently.

At least two retired generals, Prabowo Subianto of the Gerindra Party and Wiranto of the Hanura Party, are expected to run in the 2014 presidential race.

TNI commander Gen. Moeldoko, however, has repeatedly claimed that that his institution will remain neutral in the elections.

National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Lt. Gen. (ret) Marciano Norman has also recently denied an accusation that his organization had launched a spying operation against PDI-P politician and Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo. He ensured that BIN would be neutral in safeguarding the election.

In the same discussion, Feri Kusuma of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) also criticized the police'€™s poor performance in maintaining security in conflict-prone areas, such as Aceh, ahead of the elections.   

Data from the National Police shows that as of last month there were at least 24 incidents of violence in Aceh in which politicians or party supporters had fallen victim. The police, however, only arrested perpetrators responsible in four cases and identified those involved in other cases as '€œunknown persons'€, locally known as OTK.  

Feri said the police'€™s reluctance to follow up on the cases had indicated that other law enforcement bodies might have been involved in some of the election-related incidents in Aceh.

'€œThis makes the police seem anxious,'€ he said.   

Among the violent election-related incidents was the deadly shooting of Faisal, an Aceh National Party (PNA) legislative candidate; a shooting spree at the PNA southwestern branch office; the burning of a PA command post in Langsa; and the kidnapping of a Nasdem Party legislative candidate, also in Langsa.

On Monday, three people, including an 18-month-old baby, were killed after the car they were riding in, which bore a PA sticker, was shot at in Bireun. Eight other passengers, meanwhile, survived the incident, Kompas.com reported.

The police have claimed that unhealthy competition between local and national parties in Aceh had triggered a spate of incidents of violence in the past several months.

The National Police'€™s operational assistant, Insp. Gen. Arif Wachjunadi, said the police were open to any criticism.

'€œThe police, of course, have a thorough plan [to maintain security] in Aceh. If we don'€™t, we would have seen more incidents of violence there,'€ he said last week.