February 19, 2024
JAKARTA -The Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) received thousands of reports of violations during the 2024 general election on Wednesday, prompting the agency to work with law enforcers to investigate such allegations.
Among the violations were reports of double voting, which the agency received from more than 2,400 polling stations across the country, said Bawaslu head Rahmat Bagja.
“We’re investigating these reports further, but we’re considering organizing a revote for registered voters in these polling stations,” Rahmat said during a press conference on Thursday.
Bawaslu also found that election tallies in more than 2,100 stations did not match the number of registered voters.
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There were also reports of intimidation of voters and officials in more than 1,400 polling stations on voting day, although Rahmat did not provide details on the suspects involved.
Bawaslu has launched a probe into reports of ballot tampering in several regions. Rahmat said the agency was considering working with the National Police to investigate possible criminal activities behind these incidents.
Glitchy app
Bawaslu is also investigating reports that several polling stations input incorrect election tallies to Sistem Informasi Rekap (Sirekap), an official real-time vote result database made by the General Elections Commission (KPU).
During the vote counting at each polling station, poll workers uploaded scanned images of the official result form to the app, which automatically tallied the vote.
However, people reported that Sirekap wrongfully read the number written on the form, potentially giving more votes to some candidates.
The KPU defended the app, saying that any mistakes or incorrect inputs to the system were open for the public to see.
“Without Sirekap, we wouldn’t be able see updates [in the vote tabulation]. We wouldn’t know the number of votes and how many were written on the form and uploaded to Sirekap,” KPU chairman Hasyim Asy’ari said during a press briefing on Thursday.
Asserting that KPU officials were “merely human”, Hasyim added that any false inputs would be corrected once the election organizer received the final results from each district.
Ahead of the Wednesday voting day, law enforcers arrested several people accused of vote buying or bribing voters to vote for certain candidates.
The 2017 Election Law constitutes vote buying as illegal and punishable with a maximum prison sentence of four years and a fine of up to Rp 48 million (US$3,068).
The police arrested a civil servant, identified by his initials OS, in Cianjur, West Java on Tuesday, on suspicion of vote buying, as reported by kompas.com. Investigators found envelopes containing money and campaign stickers of a candidate running for the Cianjur Legislative Council (DPRD) in his house.
Read also: Bawaslu rules KPU breached regulations in Taipei overseas election
On the same day, a man was arrested in Sibolga, North Sumatra after he was caught red-handed disbursing Rp 300,000 to woo voters to vote for a legislative candidate from the NasDem Party.
The Jakarta office of Bawaslu recently said that the agency was investigating reports of alleged vote buying in North Jakarta and West Jakarta involving legislative candidates from the Golkar Party and the Democratic Party.
Rising concerns
Concerns of electoral fraud, violations and state apparatus partisanship started well before voting day on Wednesday.
Bawaslu previously stated that the agency had found 1,200 violations ahead of the general election, the majority of which were ethics breaches and state apparatus partisanship.
In recent weeks, professors, students and alumni of dozens of universities and academic communities across the archipelago have called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to ensure that elections are carried out fairly and transparently.
Jokowi and several high-ranking public officials have been accused of using state resources to try to swing the presidential election in favor of Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Jokowi’s eldest son.
Read also: Jokowi congratulates Prabowo, Gibran after early lead in polls
Civil groups and legal experts accused Jokowi of manipulating candidate eligibility requirements through the Constitutional Court, which was then led by his brother-in-law Anwar Usman, to make it possible for Gibran to run as Prabowo’s running mate. The President was also accused of increasing welfare handouts ahead of the election to boost the pair’s electability.
Jokowi urged the public to follow the procedures should they find any indication of electoral fraud.
“Report the allegation to Bawaslu. If that’s not enough, you can report it to the Constitutional Court,” Jokowi said on Thursday. “Everyone should follow the mechanism.” (rad)
Apriadi Gunawan contributed reporting from Medan