KPU Does Not Yet Have A Legal Umbrella To Use Electronic Recapitulation Of The 2020 Election Results

JAKARTA - The Chief Executive of the General Election Commission (KPU) of the Republic of Indonesia, Ilham Saputra, said that the official 2020 Pilkada vote count recapitulation plan using an electronic system has the potential to be canceled.

The reason is that Law Number 10 of 2016 still provides that the recapitulation is carried out manually in stages, starting from the polling station (TPS), sub-district, then forwarding it to the regional KPU.

"If it is related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we actually hope that the recapitulation in the sub-districts can be removed or eliminated. But, of course, we need legal breakthroughs related to that," Ilham said in a webinar discussion, Friday, October 2.

In fact, said Ilham, the KPU has prepared an electronic recapitulation infrastructure (e-RECAP) and has conducted an e-Recap simulation by sending the results of votes from each polling station (TPS) directly to the regional KPU.

Therefore, Ilham admitted that the KPU would lobby the government and the DPR as regulatory holders to make breakthroughs in changing the recapitulation rules.

"The KPU will continue to coordinate with the government and the DPR for such legal breakthroughs," he said.

Some time ago, the KPU held a simulation of the use of the e-Recap application called the Electronic Recapitulation Information System (Sirekap). This application will be used to calculate the results of the election votes held in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The simulation was carried out by 30 KPU RI employees who acted as the Voting Organizing Group (KPPS). First, the KPU prepares an official report on the results of vote recapitulation (C1-KWK) that has been filled in as a sample. This sheet is installed around the walls of the Plenary Meeting Room of the KPU RI office.

"Each of these KPPS officers will later use the Sirekap application on their respective cellphones, with several existing sequences," said KPU Commissioner Evi Novida Ginting.

The Sirekap application will display the data from the C1-KWK input process. The KPPS officer then sends the photo results to the witness and the TPS supervisor in the form of a QR code.

The data is then aggregated from each TPS to sub-districts, sub-districts, to regencies / cities in the election for mayor / regent, or forwarded to the provincial level for gubernatorial elections.