Mahfud Again Suggests Forensic Audit After The Sirekap Diagram 'Deleted' KPU: They Do Not Control Technology

JAKARTA - Vice Presidential Candidate number three, Mahfud MD again urged the independent implementation of a forensic audit of the General Election Commission (KPU) Recapitulation Information System (Sirekap). This is because this institution is considered unable to control problems in their IT system.

This was conveyed by Mahfud in response to the emergence of a vote acquisition diagram at Sirekap by the KPU. Mahfud said the problems of the system have often occurred and could lead to allegations of fraud.

In my opinion, none of the people in the KPU can control the IT there. No one can control it because they can't and don't understand," Mahfud told reporters in Jakarta, Friday, March 8.

Mahfud believes that this problem related to Sirekap was not intentional by the KPU. "He doesn't know, doesn't master their technology, yes, it's the same as me," he said.

"Therefore, I propose a digital forensic audit, a digital forensic audit to assess IT and Sirekap, especially the KPU, because there have been digital facts that it has moved many times," continued the former Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam).

Mahfud emphasized that this audit must also be carried out independently so that the root of the problem can be seen. KPU must have the courage to open itself up if they are honest, yes, audited and admitted I have no control and can't control it because I'm not an IT expert, that's all. He doesn't have an IT expert who controls it himself," he said.

"Political parties should also not object to this audit effort," said Mahfud. He said this effort was not to change the election results but only to ascertain whether there was a problem with the KPU's system or performance.

"Don't be afraid, parties also don't agree with audits, for example, it won't change even though the results set later are based on manual calculations. But this audit is important so that in the future people are not reckless like the KPU now. They should have been warned of ethical violations several times, actually, they should have resigned but they didn't want to. Maybe they are under contract too," he said.

Previously reported, vote counting by the General Elections Commission (KPU) using the vote recapitulation system (Sirekap) was highlighted by many parties. Recently, the institution has not even broadcasted the diagrams and charts for the votes acquired by the 2024 Presidential Election and the 2024 Legislative Election on their website.

"Now the KPU policy only displays authentic evidence of the votes acquired by election participants," said KPU member Idham Holik in his statement, Tuesday, March 5.

He explained that this step was taken to prevent public prejudice due to data discrepancies. Because there are some disturbances that cause the number of voice acquisitions scanned and in the C1-Plano Model to become different.

"When the results of the Sirekap technology reading are not or are not accurate and have not been curated by uploaders, polling groups (KPPS), and regency/city KPU Sirekap operators, will become polemics in public spaces that create prejudice," he said.