The Health-Security Of The Work Of KPU Officers Has Not Been Prioritized, Komnas HAM Asks For Simultaneous Elections To Be Redesigned

Photo: Diah Ayu-VOI

JAKARTA - Komnas HAM issued a paper on the protection and fulfillment of human rights policies for election officials after the 2024 Simultaneous Elections and Regional Head Elections.

Deputy Chairman of Komnas HAM Pramono Ubaid Tanthowi said policy papers were based on cases of death of election officers ad hoc.

In the implementation of the 2024 Simultaneous Elections, there were 181 electoral officers consisting of PPK members, PPS members, and 181 KPPS members who died.

This figure is still lower than the implementation of the 2019 General Election, where 8894 election officers died. However, according to Pramono, this figure is still quite high.

"We know the data has decreased quite drastically because there are a number of steps that have been taken by the KPU from technical improvements, but the death rate is still quite high even though we know that the right to life is the most basic human right for all human beings," said Pramono at the Komnas HAM office, Central Jakarta, Wednesday, January 15.

Komnas HAM Commissioner Saurlin Siagian explained that election officials have a very high workload and long working time. According to Komnas HAM, the workload and working time of election officers began from the preparation stage to the stage of the recapitulation of vote acquisition is not proportional to the number of election officers.

In holding the current election, Saurlin said that election officials need high accuracy and concentration in processing and recording to ensure the accuracy of vote acquisition. Meanwhile, the health and safety of the work of election officials has not been prioritized.

"The election organizers' arrangements and planning only focus on the need for collection equipment and a valid vote count, while the basic needs of election officials such as physical and mental health insurance and work safety are not yet the priority of the government and election organizers," said Saurlin.

Therefore, Komnas HAM has given a number of recommendations to the government. One of them is evaluating the design of holding simultaneous elections.

"This encourages the redesign of simultaneous elections and regional elections to minimize potential human rights violations that have been happening so far, both based on the experience of the 2019 election and the 2024 election based first on the issue of separation between national elections and regional elections," explained Saurlin.

In addition, Komnas HAM also recommends increasing the number of election officers, improving the recruitment process of election officials, as well as managing time and strengthening psychology and effective skills for election officials.

Not only that, it is also necessary to strengthen the preparedness of health infrastructure consisting of the preparedness of health workers, then the establishment of health posts, hospital referral mechanisms, especially hospital mechanisms, not only nearby but also feasible and prepared for the provision of basic medicines.

"Ensuring the limitation of workloads for election officials. So election officers should no longer be given other burdens other than tasks that are indeed part of the election task that are already quite heavy," he explained.