Reject Aluminum Voice Boxes And Select Use Cardus, KPU: Sad If We Find It In The Loak Market

Illustration. Workers assemble ballot boxes in the warehouse of the Padang City KPU, West Sumatra, Monday 11 February 2019. (ANTARA-M Personal Arif)

JAKARTA - The KPU prefers to use cardboard boxes rather than aluminum ballot boxes at the 2024 Simultaneous Elections. The reason is that the ballot boxes made from aluminum are State Property (BMN) status which requires an annual budget for their placement.

"Why do you consider the KPU using this box made of materials? (cardus, ed). Based on previous experience, the box made from aluminum is an asset of the state, BMN. Management is difficult for the KPU, because there is not always an adequate budget for placing these ballot boxes every year," said Chairman of the Indonesian KPU Hasyim Asy'ari, at the KPU Office, Jakarta, Thursday, December 29.

Hasyim is worried that the BMN ballot box will end up in loose goods because aluminum goods still have a selling value. Meanwhile, on the one hand, the KPU does not have the authority to divide the ballot boxes with the BMN status when the election is over.

"The saddest thing is that when we meet at the stock market, we meet a ballot box with an asset sticker and we can't do anything. We don't want to take it either. Then this aluminum box is very tempting. The value is high, thus encouraging people to control it without rights and sell it outside," explained Hasyim.

Therefore, Hasyim emphasized that the ballot box made from aluminum is no longer used for the upcoming election and replaces it with a ballot box made from douplex. Where, according to him, the cardboard ballot box status is not a BMN. So that the issue of the excluded ballot box is no longer a problem because it can be destroyed immediately after the election process is complete. "So we replace it with a douplex box. Karton douplex is water resistant since the 2019 election. Because its status is no longer an asset belonging to the state but exhausted goods. After the election, then (the vote box, ed) was removed by way of auctioning and the results were deposited into the state treasury," said Haysim.

Previously, a member of Commission II of the DPR from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction, Mardani Ali Sera, criticized the General Election Commission (KPU) plan to return to using a cardboard ballot box in the 2024 Election. Mardani assessed that the use of cardboard boxes was not proportional to the government's large budget for the KPU. This is because the 2024 election budget increased very significantly compared to the 2019 election budget which amounted to Rp25.59 trillion. Therefore, Mardani asked the KPU to clarify the details of the budget allocated for the use of ballot boxes.

"It should be clarified, because the budget allocated is up to Rp76 trillion," said Mardani in Jakarta, Thursday, December 29.

According to the DKI Jakarta legislator, cardboard ballot boxes have negative perceptions for the public. For this reason, Mardani suggested that the KPU agate use ballot boxes from other materials that are stronger, for example flexiglass. "Public perceptions of cardboard are negative. I think ballot boxes should be stronger. It could be with transparent and sturdy flexiglass," he said.