Secret Documents Of Presidential Candidates Are In The Spotlight, Civil Society Coalition Asks KPU To Be Cleaned In Total

Illustration of the General Election Commission (KPU). (Between)

JAKARTA The civil society coalition consisting of various democratic and political institutions urges President Prabowo Subianto and the DPR to issue recommendations for dismissal or dismissal of all members of the Indonesian General Election Commission (KPU) for the 2022 '2027 period to the Honorary Council of Election Organizers (DKPP).

Secretary General of the Indonesian Women's Coalition Mike Verawati, who represented the coalition, assessed that the bad decisions and policies issued by the Indonesian KPU, including the latest policy regarding the requirements documents for presidential and vice presidential candidates that had wanted to be kept secret, were inseparable from the ethics of its members who had problems.

"We from this coalition feel it is important for the government, in this case the president, to look back on the performance of the Indonesian KPU for the 2022-2027 period to be reported to DKPP," Mike said in an online statement monitored in Jakarta, Antara, Sunday, September 21.

He considered that the basic problems in the KPU institutions were one of the causes of the many problems in the implementation of the 2024 General Election and the 2024 Regional Head Election.

Previously, the chairman of the KPU who was inaugurated in 2022 stumbled upon a case related to decency and sexual violence. On the other hand, the behavior of KPU members is also highlighted because of the use of private jets which are considered a wasteful practice.

Mike also encouraged the DPR as a legislator to carry out comprehensive restructuring of the KPU institutions, form a selection team and recruitment mechanism for KPU members through the revision of the Election Law. "We hope that the revision of the Election Law will be rushed," he said.

He added that the government needs to moratorium the filling of the positions of KPU members until the ratification of the new Election Law in order to reorganize the institutional system of election organizers which has been considered problematic.

Meanwhile, University of Indonesia Election Law Teacher Titi Anggraini said that currently the right momentum for the government and the DPR to improve themselves is evaluating the selection process for KPU members or election organizers.

According to Titi, the pressure to dismiss was in line with the Constitutional Court's Decision Number 120/PUU-XX-2022, one of which decided that the recruitment process for KPU members must be completed before the election stages begin. This means that the recruitment process should not take place in the midst of the election stages.

"The government needs to make this moment an improvement for the term of office of the election organizer. Like it or not, there must be an arrangement for the end of the term of office, and this is the momentum, so the demands of friends are very relevant," said Titi.

He emphasized that all parties need to reconstruct the selection model so that the KPU, Bawaslu, and DKPP do not become partisan pragmatic political interests. "We don't want the KPU to become a community problem commission," he said.

The civil society coalition consists of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), the Center for Political Studies at the University of Indonesia (Puskapol UI), the Center for Policy Law Studies (PSHK) Indonesia, Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), and the Center for Constitutional Studies (Pusako) of Andalas University.