Bawaslu Calls The Potential For Vulnerable Elections In 2024 Much Higher Than The Presidential Election

Chairman of the Indonesian Bawaslu Rahmat Bagja (right) when met in the Petojo Selatan area, Jakarta, Friday (15/3/2024). (ANTARA/Rio Feisal)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) Rahmat Bagja said the potential for vulnerabilities for the 2024 Pilkada was higher than the 2024 presidential election. "Because at the regional level there is often conflict. Riots are always there," said Bagja in the Petojo Selatan area, Jakarta, Friday. Previously, he said the potential for vulnerabilities in the 2024 Pilkada was high due to the very high competition between regional head candidates in each region throughout Indonesia. "It can be more crowded with regional elections (reporting violations) because all regional head candidates will compete. That is what we will face in the next few months," said Bagja in a statement received in Jakarta yesterday. Therefore, he hopes that his party can continue to synergize with the TNI, Polri, and the prosecutor's office during the 2024 election stage, including the upcoming 2024 Pilkada. Bagja said that this synergy is needed to deal with the vulnerability of the 2024 Pilkada which has the potential to be greater than the 2024 presidential election. Meanwhile, Member of the Indonesian Bawaslu Lolly Suhenty said that his party had made preparations for the implementation of the 2024 Pilkada, although the 2024 General Election recapitulation process is still ongoing. "Our preparation is, first, for those (regional Bawaslu) whose elections have been completed to prepare for the PHPU (disputes over the election results), but at the same time they must also have thought about how the regional head elections will run, especially to prepare ad hoc ranks," said Lolly in the Kemayoran area, Jakarta, Thursday (14/3) night. Lolly then explained that the preparations must be carried out simultaneously by evaluating the implementation of the 2024 General Election. "Secondly, we certainly take lessons from the 2024 General Election. There are many things that must then be done mitigation even earlier, stronger, because they reflect on election events," he said. Lolly said that social media supervision is one of the things that Bawaslu is investigating so that mitigation can be carried out when supervising the implementation of the 2024 Pilkada. The General Election Commission (KPU) of the Republic of Indonesia has issued KPU Regulation (PKPU) Number 2 of 2024 concerning the Stages and Schedules for the Election of Governors and Deputy Governors, Regents and Deputy Regents, as well as Mayors and Deputy Mayors of 2024. RI KPU member Yulianto Sudrajat revealed that registration for the 2024 Pilkada monitoring had started on Tuesday, February 27.

"So, for notification and election monitoring, it will start today, February 27 to November 16, 2024," said Drajat at the Indonesian KPU Office, Jakarta, Tuesday (27/2). The following is the schedule for the 2024 Pilkada: 1. 27 February-16 November 2024: notification and registration of election monitors; 2. April 24-May 31, 2024: handing over a list of potential voters; 3. May 5, August 19, 2024: fulfillment of the requirements for support for individual candidate pairs; 4. May 31-September 23, 2024: updating and compiling of voter lists; 5. 24-26 August 2024: announcement of registration of candidate pairs; 6. 27-29 August 2024: registration of candidate pairs; 7. 27 August-21 September 2024: research on candidate requirements; 8. September 22, 2024: determination of candidate pairs; 9. September 25-23 November 2024: campaign implementation; 10. November 27, 2024: the implementation of the vote; 11. 27 November-16 December 2024: vote count and vote count recapitulation.