Protect Citizens’ Voting Rights

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

Workers check and fold ballots in Gresik, East Java, on Monday (25/2/2019). The Gresik regency chapter of the General Elections Commission (KPU) conducts the task in two places. Up to 2,836,758 ballots are to be folded there.

The right to vote in the April 17, 2019 general election is a right of citizenship. The right is guaranteed by the Constitution, which must always be respected.

A July 6, 2009 Constitutional Court ruling affirmed that the power of citizens’ voting rights was a human right. In its decision, the Constitutional Court emphasized that citizens who have not been registered in the final voters list (DPT) can exercise their voting right by showing a valid ID card and vote in their place of residence.

We quote the Constitutional Court\'s ruling again to provide confirmation that citizens’ voting rights must be guaranteed. Concerns about voting rights have risen because of the large number of voters who relocate to other places. Based on data quoted by Kompas on Feb. 17, 2019, 275,923 voters relocated and got registered on the additional voters list.

The additional voters list piled up in East Java, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta and a number of other places. The General Elections Commission (KPU) is concerned there is to be a shortage of ballots in a number of polling stations. The law only allows the KPU to allocate extra ballots equaling 2 percent of the number of registered voters in each polling station.

This constitutional or legal problem must be resolved. All parties – the government, the House of Representatives (DPR) and the KPU – must understand that the right to vote is a human right that cannot be eliminated for administrative or technical reasons. Voters who relocate cannot be assumed to want to give an advantage to a certain party or candidate.

President Joko Widodo as head of state, the DPR, the KPU and the Election Monitoring Body (Bawaslu) can actually sit together to discuss the issue. The solution can be made together. Is it necessary to issue a limited government regulation in lieu of a law (Perppu) that especially concerns the article and does not extend to other articles?

Or should it be made through a judicial review by the Constitutional Court of the interpretation of the article? Or can we let the KPU ensure ballots are distributed in accordance with the additional voters list?

Theoretically, we can determine how many extra ballots are needed from the number of additional voters on the voters list. To be sure, additional voters would increase the number of ballots for the presidential election.

The President, the KPU and the DPR, which represents political parties, need to sit together so all parties have the same understanding of the problem and seek a common solution.

If the KPU can transparently manage the issue of additional voters on the voters list and guarantee the availability of ballots at polling stations, it seems this alternative has the least political risk. Or at the same time there should be a judicial review of an article in the Election Law regarding the ballots to the Constitutional Court. The court must also be responsive and make this case a priority. The step must be taken quickly because the elections require technical preparations.