Minister Of Communication And Informatics: E-Voting Elections Authority Of KPU And DPR

DOK VOI

BADUNG - Minister of Communications and Informatics, Johnny G Plate, emphasized that the affairs of the proposed e-voting for the 2024 General Election are in the hands of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the House of Representatives (DPR).

"This is just a discussion with the KPU. This is just an idea at the KPU. So it's not the Minister of Communication and Informatics, this is the KPU's idea but because the KPU has an election digitization agenda, yes I was there to give an explanation related to infrastructure portraits and readiness", Johnny Plate in Nusa Dua, Badung, Bali, Friday, March 25.

The e-voting system is not new in some countries. Some European Union countries have already implemented it

"We ourselves have actually started using digitization long ago by the Indonesian Elections Commission. Now, where infrastructure development is getting more massive, both blockchain, satellite development and the preparation of Wifi internet access in villages, even the construction of Base Transceiver Stations ( BTS) is more evenly distributed in the country", he added.

The Ministry of Communications and Informatics continued, Johnny has prepared a national data center that provides support to the KPU in organizing the election.

"If the KPU wants to improve general election services through a digital ecosystem, whether it be electronic counting or electronic voting. We provide support and we have the potential to do so", he said.

"The decision rests with the RI KPU. To what level do they want to take advantage of the digital ecosystem, whether it is limited to electronic counting or electronic voting, that is the full authority of the KPU. What we hope is that when using digitization, we must ensure that the first is an adequate security system, strong encryption technology because the number of cyberattacks is currently so high," said the Minister of Communication and Information.

Regarding possible cyber attacks, the Minister of Communication and Informatics said that the party authorized to handle it was the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN).

"The cyberattack is entirely the domain of the BSSN. In PP 71 of 2019, technically the protection of the operation of electronic systems, both private electronics, and public electronic systems, is accompanied and carried out by the Indonesian National Cyber and Crypto Agency", he said.

New Voice Letter Design

Chairman of the General Election Commission (KPU) of the Republic of Indonesia, Ilham Saputra, revealed that his party made a new simplified and more efficient ballot design for the 2024 election.

Ilham said that there were two new models of ballots that were simulated by the KPU, namely 2 ballots and 3 ballots. Previously in the 2019 Simultaneous Elections, the KPU used 5 ballots for each type of election.

Ilham said that this new model of the ballot could save logistics costs. This is because the number of ballots received by voters will decrease. Likewise, the ballot box follows the number of types of ballot selection.

This was conveyed by Ilham when the KPU held a simulation of voting and vote counting with a simplified design of ballot papers and forms for the 2024 General Election.

"This should save the budget related to logistics. This can (save) 50 to 60 percent of logistics costs because the number of ballots is reduced because it is simplified", said Ilham at the KPU RI office, Central Jakarta, Tuesday, March 22.

However, Ilham emphasized that the KPU would still propose the 2024 election budget with a total of IDR 76 trillion. This is because the simplification of the ballot model has already been included in the KPU's calculations.

Moreover, in organizing the political contestation in 2024, the KPU proposed an increase in the honorarium for the voting group (KPPS) as an ad hoc body recruited during the election.