Vitorio Mantalean, Jakarta – An alliance of non-government organisations calling themselves the Civil Society for Safeguarding Clean Elections reported 10 General Election Commission (KPU) officials at all levels to the Election Organisers Ethics Council (DKPP) on Wednesday December 21.
KPU Election Organisation Technical Division Coordinator Idham Holik was the official reported at the KPU national level. Nine others meanwhile were reported from the KPU provincial, regency and municipal offices.
The Coalition's lawyer from the AMAR legal firm, Airlangga Julio, said that Holik was reported over remarks he made that were deemed to contain threats against KPU regional (KPUD) officials during a national consolidation meeting in early December in Jakarta.
"I'll try to repeat Pak [Mr] Idham's words. I'll paraphrase them more or less, 'To all members so they are up standing, obey the order, if you don't obey you'll go to hospital'", Julio told journalists on Wednesday.
"This was a serious intimidation, we are not taking it lightly. We also reported him as a form of protection for our KPU colleagues in the regions", he reiterated.
Julio believes that Holik's statement cannot be separated from the alleged manipulation of data on the factual verification of political parties wishing to contest the 2024 elections.
He said however that they would hand all of the information over to the DKPP as the institution that is authorised to follow up on alleged election organisation ethical violations.
"This of course is part of a series of [cases of] intimidation and it was the climax of this intimidation. Because there (at the national consolidation) all of (the KPUD officials) from the regencies, municipalities and provinces were gathered in Jakarta", said Julio.
Meanwhile the Coalition has also reported nine other KPUD officials for allegedly being involved in the intimidation and manipulation that occurred in November and December, a period that coincided with the political party factual verification process by the KPU.
Julio charged that there were attempts to counter-attack their client because they leaked the alleged intimidation and manipulation.
"If we look at it, the intimidation was very subtle. For example based on our client's [account], it was when there was a meeting in one of the provinces, they said that this is our home and how those they live in the KPU circle, therefore follow orders from above, orders from, for example, the provincial KPU", said a lawyer from the Themis law firm, Ibnu Syamsu Hidayat.
Earlier on Tuesday, December 13, the Coalition through the same lawyer filed a subpoena over a similar complaint with the national KPU.
At the time, the Coalition charged that because of the intimidation and manipulation of the factual verification data, at least three political parties benefited by being able to participate in the 2024 elections, namely the Nusantara Awakening Party (PKN), the Indonesian People's Wave Party (Gelora) and the Garuda Party.
A number of KPU commissioners have claimed that they have already responded to the subpoena but as of this article being printed the Coalition claims that they have yet to receive a response.
Notes
According to a report by the Jakarta Post, the Gelora Party had its eligibility falsified because it is a rival of the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS), having been formed following a split within the PKS in 2019. Likewise the PKN is likely to rival the Democrat Party as many of its members were drawn away from the Democrats. The PKS and the Democrats are not part of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's ruling coalition and position themselves as the parliamentary opposition. The Garuda Party meanwhile has been deeply involved in the judicial reviews filed against the Elections Law at the Constitutional Court, one of which resulted in allowing government ministers to run as election candidates.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Koalisi Masyarakat Sipil Laporkan Idham Holik dan 9 Anggota KPUD ke DKPP".]
