The State of Pilkada 2020 Emergency
The government, the House of Representatives (DPR) and the organizers of the Pilkada 2020 were so optimistic and convinced that the regional elections could be held on 9 Dec. 2020.
General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Arief Budiman and KPU member Pramono Ubaid have tested positive for Covid-19; so, too, have several commissioners and staffers at regional KPU offices, including the South Tangerang and Makassar offices, as well as 96 regional elections supervisors in Boyolali. At least 60 regional head candidates have also tested positive for the disease.
While it was hoped that the 2020 regional elections (Pilkada 2020) would not generate new clusters of Covid-19 infection, the reverse has proved the case, as the pandemic remains unpredictable. The government, the House of Representatives (DPR) and the organizers of the Pilkada 2020 were so optimistic and convinced that the regional elections could be held on 9 Dec. 2020. Although the disease risk factors of were anticipated in the Regional Elections Regulation (PKPU) No. 10/2020, the amendment to PKPU No. 6/2020, it is likely that the election organizers will face many more problems before voting day.
Not enough anticipation
According to this author, the Pilkada 2020 organizers must deal with at least three complex issues. First, the Covid-19 management protocol carries no sanctions at any stage of the regional elections.
The second relates to the discipline of electoral participants and voters in following the Covid-19 protocols to ensure the health and safety of the regional elections. In this case, a “safe election” refers to the safety of human lives, or human security, for all organizers, participants and voters.
Also read: Candidates Announced as COVID-19 Risks Rise
The third concerns the absence of any legal umbrella for the elections, because the legal basis for this year’s simultaneous elections is oriented towards holding the elections in normal conditions, rather than during a state of emergency. The legal vacuum is a consequence of regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) No. 2/2020, which fails to sufficiently anticipate the conditions of the Covid-19 health emergency. The projected flattening of the Covid-19 transmission curve in September and October also missed the mark.
It is thus unsurprising that the question has been raised as to why the prospective candidates of Pilkada 2020 who violate the Covid-19 protocols are not disqualified or given tough sanctions.
Presently, Pilkada 2020 poses a “danger” in terms of human security. Moreover, no legal umbrella has yet to be drawn up for Pilkada 2020 that regulates strict sanctions for participants, voters and organizers who violate the Covid-19 health protocols. It is thus unsurprising that the question has been raised as to why the prospective candidates of Pilkada 2020 who violate the Covid-19 protocols are not disqualified or given tough sanctions.
The polemic over potential sanctions for participants who violate the Covid-19 health protocols emerged after prospective regional head candidates failed to exercise self-discipline during the registration process.
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None of the rules regulating Pilkada 2020 stipulate sanctions, whether through a law or a PKPU. This legal vacuum has the potential to prompt the emergence of another lengthy polemic over electoral management and organization or prompt a flurry of finger-pointing.
Disqualifying candidates and otherwise handing down criminal sanctions on the basis of Law No. 6/2020 and PKPU No. 10/2020 will simply create a new problem, because the PKPU could be regarded as an overreach of authority that has not been stipulated by law.
As a result, the potential for malpractice during Pilkada 2020 remains extremely high and could occur during the campaign stage, a critical stage of the electoral process that usually involves large gatherings and public rallies. The public parades and crowds of supporters during the registration stage for aspiring regional heads, which occurred widely across several regions, should serve as a lesson.
Such occurrences, apart from endangering the safety of organizers, participants and the general public, fails to meet the government’s expectation that the election participants comply with the Covid-19 protocols by avoiding excessive mass rallies.
PKPU No. 10/2020 exists on paper, but once again, it is more like an appeal. The PKPU cannot prohibit prospective candidates from rallying their supporters at each stage of the elections, nor can it disqualify them, because no amendments whatsoever have been made to the articles on electoral campaigns.
Besides, the Regional Elections Law contains almost no provisions that stipulate sanctioning election participants or any other parties for violating the Covid-19 health protocols.
Consequently, the KPU is playing it safe, apprehensive about taking the bold step towards issuing a regulation that could be seen as overreaching its authority. This has all come to pass because of the ambiguous legal basis for Pilkada 2020, as if this year’s regional elections were being held in normal conditions.
The above matter should be a lesson to election organizers and the government. Ideally, the Covid-19 health protocols should be an integral part of a law that mandates the compliance of all parties and regulates defined and clear prohibitions and sanctions. As long as no such legal regulation exists, the KPU and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) will feel it too much of a risk to draft technical interpretations that go beyond their authority, as they fear being alleged of ethical violations.
To go ahead or postpone?
Beyond the above issues, holding the 2020 simultaneous regional elections is even more complex. This complexity has to do with the growing intensity of the Covid-19 health crisis. Under these circumstances, should Pilkada 2020 be held or postponed?
Postponing Pilkada 2020 due to the Covid-19 epidemic is, in fact, highly feasible. Three arguments can be considered. One, Covid-19 cases are continuing to surge in nearly all provinces. Technically, only nine provinces will hold gubernatorial elections during Pilkada 2020, but 28 provinces will actually hold a regional election, more specifically their regental and mayoral elections.
This leaves just two provinces, Jakarta and Aceh
As a political event, the general elections and regional elections both involve many people. For Pilkada 2020, at least 738 prospective candidate pairs, or 1,476 prospective candidates, have registered with the KPU (data as of 7 Sept. 2020). Then, there are the solo candidates and the prospective candidates’ campaign teams. If each candidate pair has a campaign team composed of 15 members, around 20,000 people will be active participants of Pilkada 2020. The total figure is likely to be higher, because each candidate pair has volunteers at the regency, municipal, district and village levels.
Also read: Save People in Regional Elections
On the organizational side, Pilkada 2020 also involves quite a large number of people. The regional elections will have an estimated 304,927 polling stations (TPS) that involve 2.1 million chairmen and staffers of Polling Station Working Committees (KPPS), as well as 304,927 ad hoc electoral supervisors at TPS, excluding observers from each candidate’s campaign team. Pilkada 2020 will also involve about 109 million voters (data as of July 2020).
Authority of the task force
The above figures aren’t simply statistics, but thousands of actual people who are participating in the local polls. In Indonesia’s political tradition, mass rallies and large crowds are an implicit part of the regional elections, and will be even more inevitable on voting day, 9 Dec. 2020. Around 109 million voters and approximately 2.5 million ad hoc organizers (at TPS) will be in the same area at the same time.
The problem is, is there any guarantee that these people will be safe from Covid-19 transmission on the elections’ “D-day” and all other stages of the regional elections? Is there any guarantee that dedicated personnel will be on hand to prevent mass indiscipline so that the Covid-19 health protocols are fully applied and there is constant supervision?
The second is to postpone the local elections according to the Covid-19 transmission risk zone for each region.
The second consideration is political. Whether Pilkada 2020 will go ahead or not depends on the goodwill of the government, the DPR and regional elections organizers. There are few options. The first is to postpone the regional elections as a whole until the Covid-19 health emergency subsides. The second is to postpone the local elections according to the Covid-19 transmission risk zone for each region.
If the risk zones as determined by the Covid-19 Task Force are to serve as the criteria, this means that only those regions designated yellow or green zones may safely hold Pilkada 2020. Those regions designated red (dark red to black) zones require special consideration.
The problem is that the Covid-19 zoning system has so far not been referred to as a primary consideration, because the Covid-19 Task Force has a limited role and involvement in Pilkada 2020 under the prevailing laws and regulations, and is still restricted to providing nonbinding counsel on the situation.
The criteria for postponing Pilkada 2020 in light of the Covid-19 health emergency are not regulated. Who has the authority to determine the criteria for postponing the elections? Is the recommendation to come from the central or regional Covid-19 task forces, or can the KPU determine the postponement by stage, based on Covid-19 developments upon the recommendations of the Covid-19 Task Force?
Also read: Option to Save People
Ideally, the election organizers should draft a regulation to provide legal certainty as a legal umbrella that covers the regional elections as a democratic process and developments in the Covid-19 emergency as public health criteria. This legal umbrella must offer the public health criteria to exempt provinces and regencies/municipalities from holding their local elections on 9
Dec. 2020 in view of the Covid-19 conditions, rather than enforcing the technical criteria for holding the regional elections.
To this end, President Joko Widodo must promptly issue a Perppu (presidential regulation) that stipulates at least two fundamental matters.
The first involves according the central and regional Covid-19 Task Forces the authority to evaluate the impacts of the Covid-19 developments for postponing Pilkada 2020. The second authorizes the Covid-19 Task Force to regulate the technical implementation of the Covid-19 health protocols for election participants, organizers and voters, as well as recommend fair and just sanctions.
Moch Nurhasim, Researcher, Center for Political Studies, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)