Electoral Frauds and Malpractices in Indonesia (2012-2019): Challenges and Implications
Aditya Perdana, Syaiful Bahri, Ikhsan Darmawan, Amri Yusra, Harlitus Berniawan T.
Department of Political Science Universitas Indonesia
Abstract
Although Indonesia elections have been passed for five times after the fall of authoritarian regime of Suharto in 1998 and always received an honour complimentary from international observers, however there are still major electoral frauds in Indonesia that need to be elaborated in scientific forums. Politicians in parliament and groups of civil society understood and worried on these problems. Institutional arrangement to reduce frauds and malpractices were purposed with the formation of new electoral judiciary council that functioned for overcoming violations and manipulations from the electoral management bodies (EMB), candidates, and also voters. This agency called The Council of Honorary of Electoral Management Bodies (DKPP). This study aims to answer why electoral management bodies in Indonesia are unable to reduce any electoral manipulations and frauds these days? The study wants to elaborate from DKPPs sentences on electoral frauds and malpractices for gaining reasons and motives from actors. This study contributes to fulfil the gap on study of electoral frauds and manipulations in new democracies, including Indonesian case. Findings of this study are: (1) some of local commissioners of EMBs are not able to become independent position and could be easily intervened by other political actors in elections because of family and relative relations with candidates; (2) The unsyncronized electoral tabulation voters data usually can be used by candidates as part of their manipulation strategies in the beginning of recapitulation of counting results; (3) vote buying or vote transaction are underground phenomena of political events that are involving voters, candidates and also electoral management officers. Usually they work together for manipulating counting results for particular candidates.
Keywords: Elections; Frauds; Malpractice; Party politics; Indonesia;
Topic: Political Party and Election