The potential for fraud in the 2024 elections is anticipated to be much greater than in previous elections. Acting regional heads down to village heads are considered to have the most potentials to commit fraud by exerting their influence to direct voters to certain candidate pairs.
The issue was raised at the launch of the www.kecuranganpemilu.com platform as a place for the public to report election fraud, in Jakarta, on Sunday, January 7, 2024). The platform was pioneered by a civil society coalition.
Researcher from Themis Indonesia, Hemi Lavour Febrinandes, said that currently, 20 provinces are governed by acting governors and 178 regencies/cities are governed by acting regents/mayors appointed by the President through the Ministry of Home Affairs. According to Hemi, most of the acting regional heads were chosen in a non-transparent, non-democratic, and non-participatory manner.
“The appointment of acting regional heads was made in reference to the provisions contained in the Constitutional Court’s ruling No. 67 /PUU-XIX/2021 which ordered the government to create an implementing regulation in appointing acting regional heads. The appointment of Acting Regional Heads is not carried out in an open, transparent and accountable manner,” he explained.
In their reaserch, Themis Indonesia found that the decision to name officials to fill in the posts of regional heads is suspected to be directly associated with the efforts of certain election participants to mobilize support, both from government officials and the villages, in the distribution of grants, social assistance and government programs for the benefit of certain election participants.
This suspicion is also confirmed by the narrative practice built by Zulkifli Hasan, Minister of Trade and Chairman of the National Mandate Party, who is a supporter of the Prabowo-Gibran pair. He said that social assistance was Jokowi’s gift. This is concrete evidence that politicization of social assistance has occurred.
In addition, there was also an attempt to influence village facilitators to support one political party, the National Awakening Party (PKB). This practice was found in Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Belitung Province.The common thread between the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration and the election participants is that the Minister of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions andTransmigration is the brother of PKB Chairman Muhaimin Iskandar, who is also Vice Presidential Candidate number 1.
There are 140,657,540 voters in provinces governed by Acting governors out of a total of 204,807,222 voters throughout Indonesia. Meanwhile, there are 19,508,034 voters in regencies or cities led by acting regents/mayors out of a total of 106,165,574 voters. There is a huge potential for fraud committed by the Acting Regional Heads. With the potential for fraud and misuse of government programs and apparatus occurring in areas governed by acting regents/mayors, the election results will be determined by fraudulent practices that favor certain election participants.
There are also several actions that fall into the category of potential election fraud, such as the one practiced by acting Regent of Sorong, Yan Piet Mosso, who allegedly signed a memorandum of understanding with the Head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) of West Papua Region, Brigadier General TSP Silaban. In the integrity pact, Yan Piet Mosso is committed to seek support and contribute votes in the 2024 presidential election for Ganjar Pranowo’s victory in Sorong Regency.
In addition to the acting regional head, based on data on the distribution of support from village heads and village officials to one pair of presidential and vice presidential candidates, there is a potential loss of 81,374,447 voters. Article 280 of Law No. 7/2017 on Elections prohibits village heads and village officials from participating in election campaigns.
