Toward the 2019 General Elections
On Oct. 3, 2017, the General Elections Commission (KPU) started work on its big job towards the 2019 Simultaneous General Elections. Starting with the registration of political parties on Oct. 3-16, 2017, the KPU has begun an historical journey of democracy in Indonesia, which has been acknowledged as the third largest democratic country in the world.
KPU\'s great work will, of course, be in the spotlight of all parties, from the participants of the general elections to the government, the House of Representatives (DPR), the public, and to the international world. The reason is that, with the complexity that exists here in running general elections, potential exists for the emergence of major problems at each step. Moreover, it is currently designing how to implement the new electoral system that uses the pure Sainte-Laguë conversion method. It needs to be extra careful here so as not to cause fundamental problems in the future.
As mandated by Law No. 7/2017 on the General Elections, the general elections are to be carried out under direct, general, free, secret, honest, and just principles. These principles are not just something mentioned in a general elections law. The question is, how has their implementation been so far?
The KPU, as the managing institution of the general election, of course has its parameters to fulfill electoral principles. Therefore, KPU has several implementation principles as stipulated by Law No. 7/2017, that is to be independent, honest, just, orderly, transparent, proportional, professional, accountable, effective and efficient, and to provide legal certainty. The principles must be the reference for all KPU commissioners at both the central and regional levels.
Potential issues
The problems that have the potential to emerge at each stage of implementation concern the arrangement of political parties participating in the general elections, which is to be held on Feb. 17, 2018. The potential problem is those parties that do not pass verification and later file lawsuits. Learning from the experience of previous general elections, of course the KPU anticipates this. However, the KPU must also be capable of proving the results of its factual verification at either the central or regional levels, which it has had difficulties in implementing.
The factual verification process is hindered by many problems at the regional level, particularly the limited number of officials that can verify the parties. Whether the KPU will only conduct sampling or complete tests will depend on the preparedness of the KPU’s human resources.
The next potential problem appears in the stage of compiling the eligible voters list, which will be based on the government census that the KPU will receive on Dec. 17, 2017. We actually hope there will be no problems, since the census relies on electronic ID cards. However, not all citizens have e-ID cards, and data at the Home Affairs Ministry’s Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration shows at least 1.9 million citizens with duplicate records– although it guarantees this would not affect the voter registration list.
It is the KPU’s responsibility to eliminate duplicate data, so that the voter list will not have many "conditions", such as a special list of voters who can use their regional ID cards at the ballots, even though they are not registered voters. As a reminder, an issue concerning a list of fixed voters emerged during the 2009 general elections and came to the attention of the DPR, which established a committee to investigate the matter. The eligible voters list at the time was very messy and even gave the impression that it had not been consolidated properly.
The next stage with the potential for problems is determining the electoral regions of the Provincial/City Legislative Council (DPRD). Even though a reference is provided in Law No. 7/2017in the principles mentioned under Article 185 –equal voting strength, obedience to a general elections system that is proportional; the integrity of regions, ballot coverage fora single region, cohesiveness, and continuity – but these must be calculated from all aspects, such as social, political, economic, demographic, and geographic.
Indeed, there were many electoral regions in the previous general elections. However, there is room to realign these principles with a variety of current developments. The General Elections Law takes into consideration the various conditions experienced in the previous general elections, such as when an electoral region exceeded its allocatedDPRD seats, which were based on mapping either a subdistrict or a combination of subdistricts.
The General Elections Law stipulates provisions on the partial use of subdistricts so that the Depok case will not be repeated. Based on their experiences, many DPRD members of the 2014-2019 period raised questions on the electoral regions. This is understandable, because the electoral candidacy mechanism and electoral system mix the roles of political parties and their candidates under its majority vote system (Article 422).
The next stages that require the KPU’s attention run from the candidacy process up to the generation of the fixed voters list. There is room for disputes to arise among candidates, supporting political parties, or even between candidates/political parties and the KPU. Even though relatively few political parties are facing conflicts – if the issue of the United Development Party (PPP) is assumed to have been resolved – the general elections system we currently use still provides room for conflict. The same is true for the campaign period, which are rife with problems in any general elections. With regard to the 2019 simultaneous general elections, the campaign model that is regulated by Law No. 17/2017 must be managed wisely when one political party proposes a presidential candidate pair that is also backed by a coalition of political parties.
In this context, the KPU needs to pay attention to what is called the coattail effect. Conceptually, the coattail effect means that voters are so fascinated by a figure so that they are swayed at the mere flick of his coattail. Therefore during the DPR/DPRD campaigns, such a figure will also be used to promote the candidate pair they support. On the other hand, competition will arise among political parties and even among one party’s candidates in the DPR/DPRD election.
Problems may also appear at the voting and ballot-counting stages, the latter of which is set for Apr. 17, 2019. This is the most crucial of all stages because it will be the first of its kind in a simultaneous election. Likewise, any potential problems in the implementation of the simultaneous regional elections will mean redoing the vote.
Election evaluation
In the 2017 simultaneous regional elections, the KPU mentioned several problems that occurred, including the illicit opening of ballot boxes, marked ballots, and repeat balloting by a single voter at different polling stations. Meanwhile, violations that did not lead to redoing the election included polling station heads who did not sign the ballot counting results, underage voters, voters balloting using C6 forms belonging to other people, stolen ballot boxes, unequal numbers of voters using C6 forms and ballots available at polling stations, and polling stations that were not monitored by candidate representatives or general election supervisors.
The KPU also recorded a shortage of ballots during the 2017 simultaneous elections due to the influx of additional voters, and the lack of ballot services for voters in hospitals, penitentiaries, and psychiatric hospitals. Regions like Jakarta made additional voting services regulations to manage additional voters, but in the end, balloting services were hindered and affected the pre-set logistics supply. Moreover, erroneous voting forms were provided in the previous general elections.
The complexity of problems will increase because five ballots will be provided per voter per polling station (except Jakarta, which will have only four ballots): one ballot each for the DPR, the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), the provincial DPRD, the regency/city DPRD, and President/Vice President. A voter will relatively need a longer time to open and mark each ballot, which would subsequently affect the ballot counting at each local polling station and on up to the highest level. In this context, the KPU must be able to select members of local polling administrators (KPPS), polling committees (PPS) and subdistrict polling committees (PPK), who can prioritize good capacity and who have an understanding of the general elections process as well as readiness and speed.
Mapping problems
Overall, the KPU must map out the potential problems at each stage for compiling into a single document as a reference for field officials. The KPU should not only formulate technical regulations on the implementation of each stage, but also map potential problems as a general reference to election officials. One of several other important responsibilities for the KPU is the systematic dissemination of information on the 2019 general elections through a qualified strategy not only to increase public participation, but also to increase public knowledge on the 2019 simultaneous general elections.
The next is a logistics distribution that is more orderly and well planned so as to reduce unnecessary mistakes that may have a big impact on carrying out the general elections.
The final and most important thing is general preparedness in the balloting and ballot-counting stages. One of the most important things regarding these stages is structured training for balloting officials so that they possess adequate capabilities, to prevent the frequent mistakes that have occurred in each general election.
Hopefully, the 2019 general elections will not only run safely and smoothly, but will also result in the election of trusted representatives of the people and a good president.
INDRA PAHLEVI
Research Center of Expertise Agency, DPR RI