Indonesia's general election will be held on February 14, 2024. In the process of conducting the elections, allegations of manipulation in the verification of political party registrations by the General Elections Commission (KPU) have emerged. The Civil Society Coalition to Protect Clean Elections obtained a number of evidence of fraud from election organizers in the regions.
One of the evidence circulated in the media. CNN Indonesia showed a voice recording of a conversation between KPU member in the region and the alleged KPU Bureau Chief. In the conversation, the KPU Bureau Chief confirmed that she received instructions from the KPU leader to secure all political parties participating in the verification stage of political party registration, except Party "U" which is the Ummat Party.
"I said, sir, what is our direction to secure these parties in their final stages, so that they can qualify, we have done even though it is not our part. Because we are dealing with the commissioner, right? I asked him yesterday to convey it directly in the forum, so that at the same time all of us can hear. It's a hassle. But he was not willing to do that, so according to him, later he will call one by one. Well, this is the problem, sir, we are limited with only one day. Meanwhile, the leadership's direction is that these parties are safe except for one, party "U"," quoted from the recorded conversation aired by CNN Indonesia on December 28, 2022.
In fact, Ummat Party was the only party that did not pass the factual verification of political parties. The Ummat Party was declared ineligible by the KPU in the provinces of East Nusa Tenggara and North Sulawesi. The Ummat Party then submitted a process dispute to the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) on December 16, 2022. Through a hearing mechanism, re-verification was carried out in 16 cities/municipalities that were declared ineligible, and the Ummat Party succeeded in participating in the 2024 elections.
Later, a video recording of a conversation allegedly involving election organizer in North Sulawesi about election fraud appeared as aired by Kumparan on January 24, 2023. In the conversation, the following sentence was clearly heard.
"If you know, Mr. xxx it was not only us who called, but directly KPU RI, and the last one to execute was the President Palace, sir."
Awaiting investigation by the authorities
The coalition has submitted a report on ethical violations to DKPP. The first hearing is scheduled for Wednesday (8/2). The Coalition hopes that DKPP can examine the evidence spread in the online media, as well as summon the presidential body to ask for confirmation.
"If left unchecked, we are worried that there will be political intrigue in the processing of this code of ethics. So, not only is the crime TSM (structured, systematic, and massive), but the protection of this crime is also carried out in a TSM manner," said ICW Researcher Kurnia Ramadhana at the discussion "Investigate and Reject Election Organizers Involved in Political Party Verification Fraud" (30/1).
The investigation by DKPP is the Coalition's hope. This is because the Bawaslu did not investigate the existing evidences. Bawaslu only said that no violations were found in the political party verification process.
"Bawaslu certainly cannot just wait for the ball. What is strange is that when the evidence was spread in the public, Bawaslu said they had not found any violative practices in the political party verification process, especially within the time frame that the Coalition updated to the public," said Kurnia.
From the report of the Coalition's lawyer, the threat of criminalization is faced by regional election organizers who report ethical violations at DKPP. The Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law is a tool to threaten.
"We demand that law enforcement officials be careful in accepting complaints related to criminalization with the ITE Law, because the interpretation of the ITE Law has been strictly limited due to many victims, in accordance with the 2021 Joint Decree of three ministers on the guidelines for the ITE Law," said the Coalition's legal counsel, Airlangga Julio at the same discussion.
Potential for multiple problems in the selection of regional election organizers
In February 2023, the selection of KPU members in the regions will be carried out in 20 provinces and 118 cities/municipalities in 15 provinces. The issue of organizers' independence in the verification process of election participants is feared to have extended to the selection process, because the alleged fraud of verification data involves election organizers in the regions. The Coalition requested that the selection team not accept election organizers who were involved in the alleged manipulation of verification of political parties participating in the election.
"In the video testimony, KPU members in the regions said that the cheating was like this, we were called one by one from the city/municipality, told to come to the room of technical KPU member. No cell phones allowed. There we were instructed that if you don't want it, just get out of the KPU. A person like this should not be re-elected as a member of KPU because obviously the person is not qualified. People who are dishonest, not independent, commit fraud," said Executive Director of Network for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (Netgrit), Hadar Nafis Gumay, at the same event.
The coordinator of FIK ORNOP South Sulawesi, Samsang Syamsir, also reported that the appointment of the South Sulawesi Provincial KPU selection team was done in a closed manner. There are members of the selection team who have questionable neutrality. The civil society coalition in South Sulawesi has sent a feedback on the selection team.
"There are several people whose track records we see are people whose neutrality we question. For example, we found a member of the selection team whose writings in the media favored a person who would advance to become one of the presidential candidates," Samsang said at the same forum.
The case of alleged manipulation of political party verification was not only highlighted by mainstream media, but also alternative media platforms such as Narasi Newsroom. Through a video entitled "KPU Manipulation Scandal: Starting the 2024 Election by Cheating?", Narasi interviewed one of the Regional KPU verifiers. The verifier mentioned a directive from the Provincial KPU to help all parties that (failed) factual verification to pass. []
AMALIA SALABI
