Police Strengthen TPSLN Security For 2024 Elections In 12 Regions In 7 Countries

Head of the Public Relations Division of the National Police Inspector General Pol. Krishna Murti. BETWEEN/HO-DivHubinter Polri

The National Police sent 111 joint personnel from Jakarta to strengthen security for Foreign Voting Places (TPSLN) in 12 areas in seven countries. "So actually it's not 12 polling stations, but 12 regions in seven countries," said Head of the International Relations Division (Kadiv Hubinter) of the National Police Inspector General Krishna Murti to reporters in Jakarta, Antara, Tuesday, January 30. The number of voters in 2024 for foreign voters in 128 representative countries is 1,750,474 voters consisting of 751,260 men and 999,214 women, with the number of Foreign Voting Points (TPSLN), Mobile Voice Boxes (KSK), and Posts as many as 3,059. The National Police through the TPSLN Security Task Force (PAM) has the responsibility of securing the implementation of the 2024 General Election abroad, by involving the Police Attaches that already exist in representative countries. However, the 12 areas derived by 111 personnel are areas that receive security assistance from the National Police Headquarters, due to several factors. The seven countries are Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia. While the 12 regions in question are six regions in Malaysia, the rest are one country each. Six areas in Malaysia, namely Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru, Kinabalu, Tawau, Penang, and Kunching. While the other six areas are in Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong, Sydney, Jeddah and The Hague. "Why are there more in Malaysia, because there are 2 million Indonesian citizens there. The rest are in Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Australia," he explained. According to Krishna, the strengthening of personnel in these 12 regions was based on the results of the National Police assessment in the 2019 Election. Where there were various obstacles, such as the queues of Indonesian citizens who wanted to vote, chaos occurred at polling stations in Hong Kong, ballots in Malaysia were cast, ballots were stray and various other problems. In addition, the number of voters in these 12 regions is relatively higher than other TPSLN in 128 states that are secured by the Police. "Our priority is that the large number of Indonesian citizens and the experience of the last election assessment there are several obstacles, the Police want to overcome these obstacles so that this year does not happen," said Krishna. Apart from the 12 regions, said Krishna, the National Police already has a Police Attache tasked with securing the implementation of the election in coordination with local security officers, so there is no need for a personnel backup from the National Police Headquarters. Previously, said Krishna, his party proposed strengthening security at 24 TPSLN, but the results of the latest assessment were chosen by areas that required attention to security attendance. For example, in Kuala Lumpur there are around 400 thousand voters, who can channel their voting rights through TPSLN, KSK and postal. With this large number of voters, the National Police predicts that the committee will be overwhelmed, so that 13 TPSLN PAM Task Force personnel will be sent. Another example, in Singapore, in the 2019 Election there was a queue of voters who wanted to vote at the Indonesian Embassy for 5 km, to Orchard's friends. In addition, there are several TPSLN that carry out voting outside the Indonesian Embassy area, by renting a building. So it is necessary to protect Indonesian citizens with local police.

"In this situation, the National Police have a cooperative relationship with the police of neighboring countries. Well, the National Police personnel who departed yesterday (111 personnel) managed their coordination," said Krishna. A total of 111 personnel of the TPSLN PAM Task Force were released from their departure by the Head of Steam Operations Brata (Kaops) Komjen Pol. Fadil Imron at the National Police International Mission Training Center, in South Tangerang, Monday (29/1).