Because Participating In Elections Is The Right Of Everyone, Including Prisoners

Photo by Rajesh Rajput on Unsplash

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Law and Human Rights together with the General Elections Commission (KPU) will form a special desk for prisoners and detainees to speed up the process of preparing voter data in the 2024 General Election.

"It is the right of everyone to participate in elections, including correctional inmates and prisoners who are still following the legal process at the detention center," said Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Hamonangan Laoly in a written statement received in Jakarta, Friday, May 13, quoted from Antara.

Yasonna said, there were 224,000 potential voters to participate in the five-yearly democratic party.

"This number is a large number and the right to vote must be fulfilled," said Yasonna.

In order to fulfill the rights of prisoners and detainees, the ministry has taken a number of steps, one of which is collaborating with the Department of Population and Civil Registration for the registration of population identification numbers (NIK).

Yasonna explained that NIK data collection is very important because it is possible for inmates or detainees to use pseudonyms (alias) making data collection difficult.

Meanwhile, KPU chairman Hasyim Asy'ari said that data support from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights was needed because the inmates and detainees could move from place to place.

For this reason, updating voter data before the election is expected to provide up-to-date and accurate data. Updating voter data is carried out based on three principles, namely comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date.

With data from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the KPU can take steps to support the right to vote for prisoners and prisoners in Indonesia.

"Based on data from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, we can distribute ballots according to the number of prisoners and detainees," he said.

In addition, to facilitate elections, the KPU will also establish polling stations (TPS) in prisons and detention centers if this is necessary.

Finally, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and the KPU plan to cooperate with relevant agencies, namely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs. The goal is that the special election desk can serve information about political parties, harmonization of laws, and voters for Indonesian citizens who are abroad.