T

he Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) has been criticized for its inflexible response to reports of alleged election violations, thus causing tensions in this year'€™s legislative and presidential elections.

Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) researcher Fadli Ramadhanil said Bawaslu, which was tasked with monitoring violations of the Elections Law, had been inflexible when dealing with citizen reports.

'€œThere were more than 200 reports during the legislative and presidential elections this year. But the reports that had clear follow up were less than 10 percent,'€ said Fadli.

He said that those people that had gone to Bawaslu to report alleged violations had been bombarded with questions regarding evidence and other administrative requirements.

Perludem executive director Titi Anggraini pointed out that the election observer did not inform those who lodged complaints on the status of their reports.

'€œWhen the public enthusiastically reported [election fraud], there was a missing link '€” an absence of communication with the public on the status of their reports,'€ she said on Thursday.

Another point of criticism was on the Elections Law, which requires people to report a violation at Bawaslu three days after the violation occurs at the latest.

Fadli said that such a short window had made it difficult for the public to participate in election supervision.

Voters went to the polls this year to select legislative candidates at the central and regional levels and later had to choose between two candidates, Prabowo Subianto and then Jakarta governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, for the presidency.

The presidential poll in July was the most polarized election the country had witnessed, with the mainstream press and social media heavily scrutinizing the candidates.

The media reported smear campaigns and a series of intimidation incidents, but almost none were confirmed as serious breaches of the election process due to lack of evidence.

Jokowi won the presidential election with 53.15 percent of the vote.

General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioner Ida Budhiati lambasted the law and Bawaslu'€™s rigidness.

'€œIf we'€™re talking about election law enforcement, it cannot be limited by time. Even after the election is finished, people should still be able [to report on past election violations],'€ she said.

According to the law, Bawaslu is tasked with dealing with violation reports. If the reports are proven to be administrative violations, then Bawaslu makes recommendations to the KPU for the commission to act upon, while criminal violations are forwarded to the police.

Bawaslu also teams up with the National Police and the Attorney General'€™s Office to handle cases of electoral fraud.

Perludem'€™s Titi said it was better for Bawaslu to be stripped of its some of its authority.

'€œBawaslu has too many tasks [to accomplish] and its performance is not maximal,'€ she said.

'€œIt would be better for the monitoring function [of Bawaslu] to be given completely to the public as long as it is accompanied by a clear law enforcement mechanism.'€

Bawaslu commissioner Nelson Simanjuntak said the election observer could not follow up on all reports because it had a lack of resources.

'€œI really appreciate the public'€™s enthusiasm but most reports [received by us] are related to improper campaigning. These matters should have been settled at the regional level,'€ he said on Thursday.