Batu chapter of the General Elections Commission in East Java together with representatives of the Election Supervisory Board, the police, Indonesian Military (TNI) and others prepare to destroy spoiled ballots and the leftovers of ballots at the local election commission office on Friday (10/2). Batu is the only region in East Java that will hold a regional election on February 15, 2017.
The customs and excise office at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport has uncovered 36 counterfeit Indonesian identification cards (KTP) sent from Cambodia.
The fake electronic ID cards were discovered in a packet along with 32 Taxpayer Registration Cards (NPWP), a bank deposit book, and one ATM card. The case is being investigated by the Jakarta Metropolitan Police, the directorate general for population and civil registry of the Home Ministry, and the customs and excise office of the Finance Ministry. The investigation is important because the event took place in the run-up to the Jakarta gubernatorial elections.
It is suspected that the forged documents may be linked to cyber crimes, banking crimes or money laundering, and not to the elections in Jakarta and one hundred other regions which will take place on February 15. The assumption is reasonable given that the 36 fake ID cards, each of which represents one voter, do not count for much compared to the more than 6.9 million eligible voters in the capital city. However small the difference in number may be, it will become significant when a dispute of election results is brought to the Constitutional Court.
Hence, law enforcement officials should fully resolve the case of the fake ID cards so as not raise potential issues regarding the Jakarta gubernatorial elections. A complete solution will also give legal protection to the Jakarta residents whose identities have been forged, so that they do not become furthervictims of criminal actions.
More than that, Law No. 23, 2013, which replaced Law No. 23, 2006 concerning Population Administration, stipulates thatan ID is the official identification card issued by an authorized state institution. Not justany person or institution is allowed to issue an ID card. Only Indonesian citizens and foreigners with permanent residence permits can have the cards. Issuing fake ID cards is against the law.
This finding of fake ID cards is not the first time such a thing has happened in this country. On October 15, 1981, Kompas reported about the Jakarta Metropolitan Police’s arrest of a suspect who had forgedJakarta ID cards since 1977. The police confiscated 1,775 ID forms and 16 fake ID cards from the culprit. Fake ID cards were also uncovered in the following years, most of which were used for wrongdoing. All this reflects the ongoing need for population administration in this country to be handled more professionally.
