February 14, 2024
JAKARTA – The General Elections Commission (KPU) has welcomed dozens of foreign delegates to observe the 2024 general election, which has been dubbed the largest and most complex one-day poll in the world.
More than 203 million voters are expected to cast their ballots in the Wednesday election, across the country’s 820,000 polling stations.
Each voter will be given five different ballot papers, for presidential candidates, House of Representatives candidates and regional and local councils.
In addition to the three presidential candidates vying for the nation’s top office, over 9,900 legislative candidates from 18 political parties are competing for the House’s 580 seats.
Thousands of other candidates are vying for the 152 seats of the national-level Regional Representatives Council (DPD), the 2,372 seats of the provincial legislative councils (DPRDs) and the 17,510 seats of DPRDs at regency or municipal levels.
To accommodate the large number of candidates, the KPU has created 2,749 different ballot designs for different electoral districts and representative bodies.
KPU commissioner Mochammad Afifuddin said that over the years, a number of countries had expressed interest in learning more about Indonesian general elections because of their complexity and scale.
“So to accommodate such interest, just like in previous general elections, we have accepted 193 foreign delegates to directly observe our electoral process so that they can learn how we manage and organize our elections,” Mochammad said in a press conference on Monday.
He added that the 193 foreign observers included members of international nongovernmental organizations, academics, journalists, government representatives and elections officials.
The observers will watch the ballot casting and vote counting processes at various polling stations in Jakarta, West Java and Banten. They will also observe the electoral process at special polling stations, such as those in prisons, homeless shelters or slums.
One such observer, Abel da Silva of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), said a successful Indonesian general election would serve as a model for other ASEAN countries.
“We want to learn more about the election because it is one of the most complex elections in the world and because Indonesia is a very strategic and important country, not only in the Southeast Asia region but also in the world,” the former Timor-Leste minister said.
Another member of the APHR, Syed Ibrahim Bin Syed Noh, said the organization was seeking not only to observe the electoral process but also to discuss issues and concerns that emerged ahead of the polls.
“We have discussed various issues with the KPU such as freedom of expression and the controversy surrounding the Constitutional Court’s decision to change the presidential candidate eligibility requirements,” said the former Malaysian parliament member.
There have been widespread concerns over possible electoral fraud and democratic decline in Indonesia ahead of the election.
Human rights defenders have decried what they say is dwindling freedom of speech in the country and democratic backsliding, noting that several government critics have been intimidated or reported to law enforcement agencies for their political statements ahead of the election.
The Constitutional Court, which has the sole authority to settle election disputes, has lost a large share of public trust after it ruled to allow candidates who had served as elected regional leaders to run for president or vice president, even if they were under the 40-year minimum age of candidacy.
The ruling paved the way for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s eldest son, 36 year-old Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to run for vice president alongside presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.
The court’s chief justice at the time and Gibran’s uncle, Anwar Usman, was later found guilty of a “serious ethics violation” for failing to maintain impartiality and independence in the controversial ruling.
In recent weeks, dozens of universities and academic communities across the country have called on President Jokowi to ensure the election is held fairly and transparently.