TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Yearender: Problematic election agency at heart of declining election integrity
Election observers and democracy advocates have agreed that this year’s elections have shown worrying signs of the trajectory of the country’s democracy, with the crumbling credibility and impartiality of the General Elections Commission (KPU).
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A voter casts his ballot on Nov. 27, 2024, at a polling station in Tangerang, Banten. (Antara/Muhammad Iqbal)
T
he year 2024 has been a busy political one that marked the first time the country held presidential, legislative and local elections in the same year.
Election observers and democracy advocates have agreed that this year’s elections have shown worrying signs of the trajectory of the country’s democracy, with the crumbling credibility and impartiality of the General Elections Commission (KPU).
Among the first signs of the eroding credibility was a complaint lodged by a group of regional KPU employees accusing the KPU’s national office of intimidating them to change the status of several political parties – all newcomers – that were not eligible to compete in the legislative election in February.
The Election Organization Ethics Council (DKPP), however, found the KPU not guilty of an ethics violation.
All seven KPU commissioners were later found guilty of ethics violations on multiple occasions ahead of this year’s elections, including surrounding Gibran Rakabuming Raka’s vice presidential registration.
A series of complaints over apparent data breaches in the voter roll and inaccuracies in the KPU’s Sirekap tabulation platform cast further doubt on the integrity of the already troubled KPU and its ability to decide the results of the 2024 presidential and legislative elections reliably.
The biggest controversy took place in July when then-KPU chairman Hasyim Asy’ari was fired from the commission after he was found guilty of misusing his authority and state resources to sexually harass a poll official based in The Hague in the Netherlands.
