Working Together to Safeguard Election Results
The ongoing count of votes following the 2019 election must be jointly supervised at the district level.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The district-level vote count for the 2019 election began on Saturday (4/20/2019). Election witnesses, election supervisors and the public jointly monitored the process, thereby ensuring the validity of the votes and the credibility of the 2019 election.
Even though there are quick count results from a number of pollsters, all sides must wait for the General Election Commission (KPU) to officially announce the 2019 election results.
This message has been expressed by both presidential candidates contesting the 2019 election, namely Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, among others.
Jokowi, on Thursday (18/4), also called on all parties to maintain national unity and harmony. Our relations as brothers and sisters in one nation should not be disrupted just because of an election.
In a bid to strengthen the sense of unity and brotherhood, Jokowi said he had sent someone to invite Prabowo and Sandiaga Uno for a silaturahmi meeting. “I have often said that the friendship and silaturahmi of ours – me and Pak KH Ma\'ruf Amin – with Pak Prabowo and Pak Sandi will not break up,” said Jokowi.
The deputy chairman of the Jokowi-Amin campaign team, Johnny G Plate, refused to name the person sent by Jokowi to meet Prabowo. “What is certain is that the person sent must be able to communicate and know the problem,” he said.
Separately, Prabowo also called on his supporters to prioritize peace and not get provoked. He said his supporters loved the country and the 1945 Constitution. On that basis, he emphasized, the campaign team and supporters of Prabowo-Sandi did not intend to take any extraordinary action.
He also asked his supporters to supervise the votes-counting process and safeguard the C1 Form, which contains the record of votes from each polling station (TPS). That would ensure there would be no changes in the entry of data from the vote records to the KPU documents. “Therefore, I ask them to hold up the spirit of safeguarding the people’s vote,” he said at his residence in Kertanegara, Jakarta, yesterday.
Before conveying that message, Prabowo had joined the Friday prayers at the Al-Azhar Mosque in Jakarta. After the Friday prayer, Prabowo and his supporters prayed together and performed sujud syukur, thanking God.
Sandi, meanwhile, offered his Friday prayer with his son the At-Taqwa Mosque, Jakarta.
Vote count
According to the KPU timeline, the counting and authorizing of votes at the district level takes place from April 18-May 4, 2019. The process will then continue at the regency/city level from April 20-May 7. At the provincial level, the count is done from April 22-May 12, while counting at the national level and the counting of overseas votes will be conducted from April 25 to May 22.
In parallel, the KPU unveils the C1 Form counts (the results of vote counting at polling stations) through the Vote Counting Information System (Situng), namely at https://pemilu2019.kpu.go.id/ #/ppwp/hitung-suara/.
However, as KPU member Ilham Saputra noted in Jakarta on Friday (19/4), the Situng did not represent the official results, as there was a possibility of errors in inputting data into the Situng. Residents could
report any errors to the KPU by e-mail to bagianteknis@kpu.go.id.
“The Situng is not the official result, yet it uses manual counting. Later, we will announce the results of the counts from districts, regencies, provinces and the KPU. We will announce [the results] at the national level on May 22,” said Ilham.
Constitutional path
Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Said Aqil Siroj called on NU members not to take part in celebrating the victory claimed by one of the presidential candidates. The NU members were asked to encourage reconciliation of the two camps supporting different presidential candidates, so that after this election the Indonesian people would reunite. “If they take part in [events to] thank God for the peaceful election, that is fine,” he said.
Said Aqil also hoped that all parties would have big hearts to accept the final result of the vote count conducted by the KPU. Unconstitutional actions could harm Indonesia’s image in the eyes of the world, because the country is known as a Muslim-majority country that embraces democracy.
Muhammadiyah chairman Haedar Nashir called on the KPU and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) to carry out transparent vote counting without leaving serious problems. If problems are found in the organization of elections, they should be solved through legal channels.
“If there is any dispute, it will be resolved through the prevailing laws and regulations. Let’s develop mutual respect, maturity, temperance and a sense of brotherhood amid differences,” he said.
Separately, former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD said running a state means also running the Constitution. Therefore, constitutional processes must be followed. “So, actions outside the Constitution must be avoided,” he said.
Mahfud noted that Indonesia had institutions and legal instruments to oversee election administration. Therefore, if there were parties who feel
they are being treated unfairly in the 2019 election, they should resort to legal procedures with valid evidence.
“Those who feel treated unfairly, please use the constitutional procedure by bringing the evidence you have. If the evidence you bring is correct, nobody will be able to reject it,” Mahfud said.
Mahfud also asked the police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) to act decisively should there have been any violations.
PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto also stated that any objections in the 2019 election process were to be resolved through formal legal channels at the Constitutional Court. “For those who are not satisfied with the results of the election, both the political parties participating in the election and the pairs of candidates for president and vice president, this can be done through the Court. That is the official mechanism,” he said. (SAN/INK/IAN/INA/BOW/SYA/HRS/SPW)