POLITICAL EDUCATION FOR THE PREVENTION OF ELECTION VIOLATIONS IN PAPUA

ELECTION VIOLATION PREVENTION IN PAPUA THROUGH POLITICAL EDUCATION

Political Education for the Prevention of Election Violations in the Papua. The Chairman of the Election Organizing Honorary Council (DKPP), Heddy Lugito, said that the strategy for preventing ethical violations of election administrators in Papua would be no different from other regions.

Quoting national.kompas. com, Papua previously received special attention from the DKPP because it had a high case of ethical violations.

According to him, the vulnerability of ethical violations in Papua will be handled by political education.

“In the future, we will carry out more political education in the community and ethics education in election administrators,” Heddy said at a press conference after meeting with the Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian, Friday (16/9/2022).

“So it is hoped that in the future, not many cases are handled by DKPP, there are not many ethical violations at the level of election organizers,” he added.

Heddy considered that the success of his institution was measured not by the number of cases that were reported and handled, but by how far the complaints and case handling had decreased.

Heddy considers this to be a benchmark that DKPP has succeeded in prioritizing the prevention of violations. “But if there are more violations (handling of violations by DKPP), it means we have failed,” he said.

He also emphasized the importance of collaboration with election management institutions in suppressing ethical violations in Papua and other vulnerable areas.

“There should be cooperation with other institutions including the KPU and Bawaslu in order to keep their members loyal to the election code of ethics,” concluded Heddy.

As an information, the meeting between the DKPP and the Ministry of Home Affairs is said to be related to the proposal of establishing DKPP representative offices in areas with the most ethical violations of election administrators, especially Papua and North Sumatra.

Heddy repeatedly emphasized that this proposal was only a plan. This is because there is no legal basis for DKPP or the Ministry of Home Affairs to establish a DKPP representative office in a province.

Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections does not mandate the DKPP to establish such a representative office, but rather an ad hoc regional inspection team.

Quoting news.detik.com, reflecting from 2019’s general election, Bawaslu handled 63 election criminal cases that occurred in 20 regencies out of 29 regencies and cities in Papua.

Most election criminal cases occurred in Puncak Jaya Regency. Therefore, this year, the Indonesian Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) began to compile an election vulnerability index that will be used in 2024.

Quoting mediaindonesia.com, Bawaslu Member Herwyn JF Malonda said that three provinces that were expanded as new autonomous regions (DOB) in Papua were also a concern. The reason is that Papua is included in the red zone with a high potential for vulnerability during elections.

“The addition of Papua’s DOB will have an impact on the needs of election supervisors as well as challenges for Bawaslu in carrying out prevention and supervision,” he said through a press release on Friday (15/7/2022).

The three new autonomous regions resulting from the expansion in Papua Province are Central Papua, Highlands Papua and South Papua. Herwyn added that Bawaslu was calculating the estimated number of provincial Bawaslu members in the three new autonomous regions.

He estimates that each new autonomous region needs 50 employees. In addition, he said that the recruitment of Provincial Bawaslu members would also have implications for the budget which includes salaries, supervisory allowances, offices and others.

In addition to the three new autonomous regions in Papua, continued Herwyn, there will be a State Capital (IKN) whose vulnerabilities need to be mapped.

The implementation of the 2024 elections at IKN, he explained, only chooses the president and presidential candidates, members of the legislature, namely the People’s Representative Council (DPR) and the Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD) and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).

Meanwhile, for the 2024 regional head election (pilkada), IKN is not included because the Head of the IKN Authority is appointed by the president. “As a new region, IKN will have its own electoral district (dapil).

However, it will intersect with electoral districts for the elections for DPR, DPD, the affected Provincial DPRD, namely East Kalimantan and the affected Regency DPRD, namely Penajam Paser Utara (PPU) and Kutai Kartanegara (Kukar), “ he said.

Bawaslu’s data, as related to the 2019 Election Vulnerability Index (IKP) released on September 25, 2018, shows Papua as the region with the highest level of vulnerability.

Papua’s IKP reached 55.08. The vulnerability index is divided into four criteria, namely free and fair organizers (related to the independence of the KPU, Bawaslu, and DKPP), the contestation dimension (related to the parties participating in the election), the socio-political context dimension, and the political participation dimension.