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Graft watchdog relaunches candidate profile platform ahead of 2024 race
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Indonesia Corruption Watch researcher Kurnia Ramadhana (right) leaves the Constitutional Court in Jakarta on June 12, 2023. The ICW is a member of the Civil Society for Clean Elections, which is seeking to overturn a 2023 regulation that allows ex-graft convicts to run for public office again less than five years after they first completed their prison term. (Antara/Hafidz Mubarak A)
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has relaunched its electoral candidate profile platform, Rekamjejak.net, in preparation for the 2024 legislative election.
The watchdog’s website was launched on Sunday, two days before the official start of the campaign season.
The platform offers members of the public information on legislative candidates, including short biographies, their personal and professional connections, their previous roles in the lawmaking process, their legal situation and history, as well as any known indications of connections to current or past corruption cases.
At the relaunch event, ICW researcher Kurnia Ramadhana acknowledged the difficulties that the public had in finding information on candidates for local councils or the national legislature.
In an effort to solve the problem, the organization is collaborating with the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), environmental advocacy group Greenpeace Indonesia and online and broadcast news agency Narasi to gather relevant information on candidates and provide it on the website.
To date, the groups have compiled and uploaded data on 491 candidates for the House of Representatives.
Rekamjejak.net was created in 2015 and offered similar information on candidates for the 2019 elections.
Kurnia said the website had been relaunched this year because the government and the General Elections Commission (KPU) had not provided sufficient information to voters.
“There are problematic legislative candidates, but there is insufficient information about them. For instance, some candidates are unwilling to open up about their profile for public access on the KPU website,” the anticorruption activist said, as quoted by kompas.com.
“Unfortunately, the KPU has not made any regulatory breakthroughs, either, to make the information publicly available, even if the data exists.”
One piece of information on the Rekamjejak.net website is whether candidates have known familial links with any high-ranking officials from political parties.
Read also: Civil groups vow close scrutiny of 2024 race“People talk about political dynasties unaware that there are political dynasties in their own party,” Kurnia said.
Among the ICW’s discoveries were several candidates who were the children of high-profile figures in the political establishment.
Ravindra Airlangga, the son of Golkar Party chairman Airlangga Hartarto, is running for a legislative seat in the West Java-5 electoral district; Prananda Paloh, the son of NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh, is running in the North Sumatra-1 district; while Pinka Haprani, the granddaughter of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, is seeking the Central Java-4 district seat.
Rekamjejak.net also offers information on whether a candidate has held public office before, whether in the legislature or executive.
It also notes whether candidates have been part of the National Police, other law enforcement institutions or the Indonesian Military (TNI), and it provides details on any graft convictions.
Candidates’ known affiliations with controversial lawmaking processes or corruption cases are also noted on the website, Kompas daily reported.
The public service initiative follows in the footsteps of similarly crowd-sourced and civil society-run election information platforms such as Bijakmemilih.id and Kawalpemilu.org, which both provided information on candidates for the 2019 elections.
The 2024 legislative election is to be held simultaneously with the presidential election on Feb. 14, 2024.
Each voter will be able to vote for one House of Representatives candidate, one city/regency councilor and one candidate for the Regional Representatives Council (DPD). Voters also have the option of designating a political party to select legislative candidates on their behalf.
