Government rejects UGM's call for people's court to address election fraud

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Kompas.com – March 14, 2024
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Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko being interviewed at North Sumatra University – March 1, 2024 (Kompas)
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Dani Prabowo, Jakarta – Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko has responded to a call by Gajah Mada University (UGM) academics who want to hold a people's court to address allegations of fraud in the 2024 general elections.

Moeldoko stated that he does not agree with the call considering that Indonesia is constitutional state.

"Because we are a constitutional state, don't resolve things using street methods like that", said Moeldoko at the Presidential Palace Complex in Central Jakarta on Wednesday March 13.

According to Moeldoko, there are independent institutions that deal with election fraud including the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) and the General Elections Commission (KPU) as the organisers of the elections.

On the problem of election fraud, he said, this can be resolved through the prevailing mechanisms at the two institutions.

"This is related to election organisers, the organizers are the KPU and Bawaslu. We must support these processes (through the KPU and Bawaslu)", said Moeldoko.

Earlier Kompas.id quoted UGM Faculty of Law lecturer Zainal Arifin Mochtar as calling for the need for a people's court to address the current state of the nation.

The call was made during a "Campus Accuses" movement event at the UGM Balairung hall in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta on Tuesday March 12, which was attended by representatives from a number of different universities.

And it was not just Mochtar. UGM Vice Chancellor Arie Sudjito was also present and delivered a speech at the event, as did UGM Psychology professor Koentjoro. Also attending was artist Butet Kartaredjasa who wore pink clothing.

The Campus Accuses movement invited academics from every university to restore the ethics and the constitution which they said has been torn apart over the last five years.

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Akademisi UGM Usul Pengadilan Rakyat, Moeldoko: Kita Negara Hukum, Jangan Diselesaikan dengan Cara Jalanan".]

Source: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2024/03/14/03000071/akademisi-ugm-usul-pengadilan-rakyat-moeldoko--kita-negara-hukum-jangan

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