Handi Mulyaningsih
Lecturer at the Department of Sociology, FISIP Unila; KPU of Lampung Province KPU 2008-2019
GOVERNMENT Regulation instead of Law (Perppu) Number 2 of 2020 concerning the Third Amendment to Law Number 1 of 2015 concerning the Establishment of Government Regulation in lieu of Law Number 1 of 2014 concerning Election of Governors, Regents and Mayors into Laws has been issued.
This Perppu was born because of the Covid-19 requires social and physical distancing, and the period also unpredictable. The period of Covid-19 is similar to the 2013 Lampung Governor Election (Pilgub) which has no budget at all and has fallen uncertainty. The election was postponed three times until it coincided with the legislative election on April 9, 2014.
Because Lampung has experienced this situation before, so the government shouldn’t be worried about postponing the election. The eight regency elections that were originally scheduled for September 23, 2020, changed to December 9, 2020. However, the elections may be postponed again if the pandemic is still exists. Nevertheless, there are several things that need to be considered in the simultaneous postponement of the elections.
State administrators and local governments must maintain Pilkada simultaneity at each stage of every condition. This has become legal compliance that has been regulated in Law Number 10 of 2016 and Perppu Number 2 of 2020.
The General Election Commission Regulation (PKPU) Number 15 of 2019 concerning Stages, Programs, and Schedule for the Simultaneous Election of 2020, which began with the signing of the Regional Grant Agreement Letter (NPHD) on October 1, 2019, until the day of September 23, 2020 (13 months) remains valid.
Based on the decision, the General Elections Commission (KPU) postponed four things namely the inauguration of the Voting Committee (PPS), verification of the candidate’s support, recruitment of the Update Data Selection Officer (PPDP), also data matching and research (coklit).
The issuance of Perppu No. 2 of 2020 provides a legal basis that the KPU is given the authority to continue the four pending stages as well as other stages, and make decisions whether it has to be postponed again. In other words, the stages that have been carried out by KPU still don’t need to be valid and there’s no repetition.
It is important to understand that the consequence of procrastination will stop the stages, so the activity should not carry out and even use the budget for the elections. In this condition, the election organizer can only carry out various internal administrative preparations.
Commitment on Pilkada Budgeting
The postponement of the Pilgub requires a joint commitment of election organizers with the local government to budget the Pilkada which does not complicate the implementation of the stages.
The postponement is an unpleasant thing indeed. However, the quite typical of Pilkada experience in Lampung has made the political elite and the society learn towards political maturity. This can be seen from the horizontal and vertical political interactions which resolved through legal channels despite the conflict.
The rate of voter turnouts in the pandemic and post-pandemic periods become the most concerning thing. The participation rate seems to get even lower than before, 71%. Election organizers must think hard to create a method for promoting local elections for all electors to varying disabilities.
The conventional method of socialization has proven to be difficult to increase voter turnout. This method must consider the psychological and social changes which affected by the Covid-19. It needs to show more empathy toward social conditions and society who experience economic and health decline from a psychology perspective.
It seems that the impact of social change in Covid-19 must be a major factor for innovation. Data matching and research stages, factual verification of support for individual candidates, voting, and counting must be loaded with technology and friendlier to social and physical distancing.
Internet Literacy among Indonesians is said to have increased. Data from the Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers shows the number of internet users in 2019 reached 64.8% or around 171.17 million. According to internet service providers and Biznet, there is an increase in data traffic and new internet users up to 40% due to work from home. This indicates the use of technology in the elections simultaneously accepted by the public.
To elect is part of human rights, so KPU cannot prevent electors from using and not using their rights. However, KPU made innovations as much as possible so that all electors gained comfort and security in using their rights as the wisdom of the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s time to incise the history of the elections in this period. []
