M

ore people are calling for the implementation of an electronic voting system (e-voting) in next year'€™s concurrent regional elections.

The Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) said on Wednesday that holding electronic-based elections (e-elections) was actually feasible and that they could begin as soon as next year.

'€œIf the General Elections Commission [KPU] gives the green light, e-elections can start [in 2015],'€ BPPT researcher and former chief Marzan Aziz Iskandar said during a discussion on e-voting at the agency'€™s headquarters in Jakarta.

He said that the BPPT had conducted research on the feasibility of e-elections.

'€œThe research and the development [of the technology for e-elections] is complete and the needed equipment is available,'€ Marzan said.

He said that the technology had been demonstrated and tested during some gubernatorial elections.

'€œWe have already used the technology in some village head elections,'€ said Marzan.

The KPU is mulling the possibility of carrying out e-elections for the concurrent regional elections next year.

Discussion on e-elections began when former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) on the mechanisms for local elections last month.

Article 85 of the Perppu stipulates that voting can be done electronically or by paper ballot, while Article 98 says that if the KPU chooses electronic balloting then the votes can be counted manually or electronically.

Marzan said that the legal basis for an e-election was strong enough.

'€œSo the KPU only needs to issue a regulation, there'€™s no need for a higher law,'€ he said.

KPU commissioner Hadar Nafis Gumay said that the election body would set up a team to consider the options.

The 10-member team would comprise IT experts from reputable universities, researchers from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the BPPT, election observers and members of the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu).

Hadar, however, said that the public should not get their hopes up too high because it usually took years for a country to prepare to hold e-elections.

'€œCountries smaller than Indonesia needed more than 10 years to prepare for e-elections,'€ said Hadar last week, citing the Philippines as an example.

Smartmatic, the electronic system provider for e-elections in the Philippines, said that Hadar'€™s statement was blown out of proportion.

'€œTen years ago, the plan for e-elections started but it was abandoned. Then in 2008, the idea was brought up again. In 2009, the government prepared the system and in 2010 e-elections were being held,'€ Robert Dobler, the head of Smartmatic Asia channel sales, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Therefore, if a country is really dedicated to holding e-elections, then it should not take too long to prepare for them, according to him.

'€œNow it'€™s up for the political leaders, do they want to do it or not,'€ Dobler said.

In 2015, the KPU expects to hold 204 elections of local heads in eight provinces, 26 municipalities and 170 regencies.

The KPU initially scheduled the start of the elections in September of this year.

'€œBut we had to abandon that plan because preparations were taking longer than expected. For example, candidates must go through a six-month screening before we decide whether they are eligible to run for office,'€ Hadar said.