Breakthroughs Urged to Ease Poll Workload

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

Rows of flags of political parties participating in the 2019 Simultaneous General Election on an overpass in the Senayan area, Jakarta, Sunday (7/4/2019).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - Breakthroughs need to be made by the General Elections Commission (KPU) to ease the burden of poll volunteers as the nation braces for the simultaneous legislative and presidential elections in 2024.

The issue of excessive working has become more of a concern given the fact there is no revision of the Election Law and the Constitutional Court has rejected the filed judicial review over the Election Law provision related to the simultaneousness of the election.

In its ruling on the judicial review proposal related to the simultaneous election on Wednesday (11/25/2021), the Constitutional Court acknowledged that the simultaneously held legislative and presidential elections, often called the five-box elections as in the 2019 election, could result in a heavy, irrational and inhumane workload for the election organizers. However, the country’s judiciary supreme body sees it all as a matter of electoral management pertaining to the implementation of the Election Law norms.

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The Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) chairman Abhan said Thursday (25/11) that the elections commissioners had to make a breakthrough after the Constitutional Court decided that the format of the next election would remain the same as in the 2019 election.

He said the pursuit for improved organization was even more crucial with the Election Law having undergone no revision.

He urged for the optimization of the use of information technology. He also suggested the ballot papers be designed for easy use so to reduce the workload of poll organizers, especially for the volunteers on duty at the polling stations (TPS) and those in charge of recapitulating the votes at the district level.

He also reminded that the election management was related to human resources and that the health issue of poll administrators would have to be taken into account.

Kompas/Heru Sri Kumoro

Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Anwar Usman, reads out the verdicts on a number of cases at the Constitutional Court Building, Jakarta, Wednesday (11/24/2021). One of the decisions that was decided was the case of holding simultaneous elections which caused the workload at the KPPS, PPS, and PKK levels to be irrational and feasible.

Mardani Ali Sera, a member of Commission II of the House of Representatives, which oversees domestic governance, state agencies, agrarian reform, village development and disadvantaged regions, called for the election organizers to map out the voting obstacles and seek their solutions, especially concerning the recapitulation workload.

"The use of e-recapitulation [electronic recapitulation] needs to be perfected and put in more detail in KPU and Bawaslu regulations," said the legislator from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction.

He also hoped the number of poll volunteers could be increased to enable work shifts and that the financial scheme for the additional volunteers and their health was included in the budgeting plan.

Voting dayThe calls for improved electoral management arrangements were also raised by the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), with its board of trustees member Titi Anggraini urging for optimal support from the government as well as the stakeholders.

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The management arrangement she said, shed light on the need for a balanced distribution of the number of voters at polling stations and the use of digitalized voting forms in order to reduce the workload of the poll administrators.

She also saw it necessary to set an age limit on becoming a member of the polling station working committee (KPPS) so that it could stem the serious effects on those with health vulnerabilities.

KOMPAS/KORNELIS KEWA AMA

The post-election ballot recapitulation in 2019 made KPPS, PPS and PPK officers and other elements involved exhausted because they had to work until dawn.

Vote recapitulation technology was also necessary so it could be compatible with the voting and ballot counting process at polling stations. With the number of forms needed to be filled reduced or simplified, she said, the workload of poll administrators could be more rationally eased.

The elections commissioners said they had prepared anticipatory measures for the 2024 elections.

"The KPU started the preparations long ago, starting from the regulatory aspect, technical implementation, voter education, information technology aspects to human resources consolidation," KPU member I Dewa Kade Wiarsa Raka Sandi said.

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In addition to the legislative and presidential elections, in the same year there will also be simultaneous regional head elections across the country. Even though the Constitutional Court did not consent to a change to the format of the simultaneous election, the KPU, Raka said, was already prepared for the next elections.

Specifically to anticipate the heavy burden of poll administrators, he said the simplification of ballot papers was being designed.

In addition, the KPU was said to be optimizing the use of information systems, while voting and ballot counting simulations have also been carried out to measure the burden of poll administrators.

This article was translated by Musthofid.