Arizka Warganegara
Academics of FISIP Universitas Lampung
AT least my two articles Covid 19 dan Penundaan Pilkada published in Lampung Post on April 6, 2020,and Politik di Tengah Pandemi: Pertimbangan untuk Meniadakan Pilkada 2020 released on The Conversation on May 15, 2020, have discussed the issue of the elections during the Covid19.
I can imagine this election will become the most severe election for all the elements of the nation. At the beginning of the pandemic, I have suggested that the elections should be postponed at least to April or September 2021 despite the length of service significantly reducing.
The Government and the Indonesian House of Representatives have ensured that the elections will be held in December 2020. However, various questions arise, how is the implementation of the elections in the new normal era? What are the consequences of organizing the elections during a pandemic? How are the elections being prepared?
The various questions are certainly not a series of questions that are easy to answer. Our knowledge is also very limited to answer it all, but there are some basic things that we can discuss through this writing.
Consequences
Speaking of various possibilities, Article 5 of the PKPU draft on the Election of Governors and Deputy Governors, Regents and Deputy Regents, and/or Mayor and Deputy Mayor in Non-Natural Disaster Conditions mentioned several important things. These include the rapid test for administrators, provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), sanitation facilities, body conditions scoring, physical distancing, a prohibition to crowding, regulation of the number of participants and task personnel, and the use of information technology to coordinate and replace face to face procedues.
Some of the descriptions and identifications in PKPU are the standard protocol of Covid-19. The arrangement might look easy, but what about its implementation by the officers and the consequences of the incremental election costs?
As an illustration, PPE procurement certainly requires a large amount of money. So, at what post will the state budget be diverted to procure Covid-19 mitigation equipment in times of disaster like this? I almost have no answer.
This is then added to geographical and demographic conditions. For example, Lampung that is demographically diverse, the condition in eastern Indonesia, and internet signals problem. These technical, budgetary, and medical consequences must at least be calculated carefully.
I also find it difficult to imagine KPPS officers having two jobs at once. They have to ensure the voting procedure runs and the Covid-19 countermeasure protocol runs.
These are not easy jobs. Plus they are obliged to involve health workers because they are the ones who understand the medical treatment which will also cause an increase in the budget
On April 6, 2020, I also wrote the possibility of a low participation rate. It raises the potential of money politics (voters are enticed with money by candidates to come to polling stations) thus winning the candidate who has strong financial support rather than the one with the best capacity.
Solution
For a long time, we have given input to the KPU RI to hasten the implementation of electronic voting (e-voting). This is done with an argument that Brazil and India which relatively have the same demographically as we, can do it.
On the other hand, I also do not see an effective solution made by the government and the Indonesian Parliament, for example by opening the postal voting option or voting by post. The fact is PT. Pos Indonesia has qualified capacity for distribution and collecting.
I imagine if those two things have been accommodated from the past, both e-voting or postal voting. These two methods will be very useful in times of disaster like now.
In the end, in my opinion, there are only two solutions to this problem and it has been discussed in my previous articles in both the Lampung Post and The Conversation. The solutions are postponing the elections to April or September 2021 and/or abolish the 2020 election.
Re-encourage the government and the Parliament to postpone the elections to April or September 2021 refers to the Covid-19 vaccine research development that has entered the second phase by the University of Oxford, England.
If the third clinical trial phase goes well, mass production of the Covid-19 vaccine can begin to be distributed in September 2020. In another part, mathematical modeling conducted by many parties also explains ‘at least we are going nowhere’ until the end of 2020.
The option to cancel the 2020 elections is also a viable option and I am inclined to encourage this choice. By eliminating the 2020 elections, at least the state budget can be saved and can be diverted to the economic recovery process that is in an extraordinary crisis.
Finally, the choice of diverse options lies with the political elite. However, there is one sentence that can be a common reflection. Is not voicing public voice part of the definition of people’s representatives and government?
