Jakarta – A grouping of civil society organisations fully supports a House of Representatives (DPR) right of inquiry to uncover alleged fraud during the 2024 elections.
The civil society organisations consist of a number of election institutions and activists such as kecuranganpemilu.com (election cheating), Migrant Care, Media Talk and the jagapemilu.com (safeguard the elections) association.
Okky Madasari from Media Talk said that a right of inquiry should already have been set in motion and they will fully support the DPR even though the result may be another defeat for society.
"We unanimously support the DPR's right of inquiry or interpellation motion. This [move] must indeed be taken, in fact if it's not done then yes, we would question it", said Madasari during a press conference on election fraud held in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Saturday February 24.
He is asking all of the political party factions in the DPR to call for a right of inquiry. If later it fails, at least the DPR tried. Madasari continued saying that even if an interpellation motion is launched but is unable to prove the alleged election fraud, this could clarify what occurred.
"But at least we have articulated it and we really hope that the political parties can do the same thing. After all, this is also to build their credibility, so yes they do indeed have to do this", he said.
According to Madasari, initiating an interpellation motion or right of inquiry is not only to expose the current problems with the elections. A right of inquiry can also be carried out as a step forward so that the political parties and the DPR actually function to defend the rights of civil society.
"Yes, if indeed they still cannot (prove election fraud) at least the political parties and the DPR will have carried out their functions properly", he said.
The next step, if indeed the right of inquiry and interpellation motion is not possible, is that it is likely that students and the public will take to the streets to demonstrate.
Madasari just hopes that there is no repressive response from the authorities and that the government will not try to stop actions that are a form of protest and the voice of society.
"If demonstrations do occur it's a legitimate part of the political mechanism, the task of the state is only to ensure that there is no violence and there are no efforts to prevent these actions", he said.
Prior to voting day
Madasari also took the opportunity to address the issue of the DPR's right of inquiry on the 2024 elections only now being discussed. The right of inquiry, he said, should have been initiated long before voting day.
"It should indeed have existed from the start, initiated long before voting", he said.
The reason being because the election fraud is suspected to have occurred before the voting period. Yet if this had been done some time ago the likelihood of it being approved would also have been bigger.
"But never mind, even though they only want to propose it now we will continue to support it", he said. (sur/sur)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Perkumpulan Sipil Dukung Wacana Angket Pemilu".]
