CIDISS. Every election, whether local, legislative or presidential election is usually vulnerable to abuse or fraud. According to Susan Hyde et al (2008) in Election Fraud: Detecting and Deterring Electoral Manipulation, the main issue in elections is to recognize and prevent the occurrence of electoral fraud, election manipulation, or vote rigging of electoral fraud that occurs due to illegal intervention or interference to the process of holding the election.
This action affects the counting of votes that may affect the outcome of the election, either increasing the vote, reducing or both to a particular candidate. While technically “electoral fraud” encompasses illegal acts that violate the law, legal actions that are morally unacceptable do not reflect the spirit of electoral rules, and are contrary to the principles of democracy belonging to the category of “electoral fraud”.
The election fraud category formulated by Hyde is relevant in explaining the actual problems in the elections in Indonesia, from the start of the stages of drafting the electoral technical regulations to the ballot. Referring to the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 10 Year 2016 on the Election of Governors, Regents and Mayors, the provisions on the types of violations in elections in the form of criminal election are handled by Gakkumdu, namely Polri, Attorney General and Bawaslu, administrative violations handled by KPU, ethics handled by DKPP and dispute over vote count results processed at the Constitutional Court.
The violation of the elections does not mean to minimize the chances of creating an honest and fair elections in 2018. As a good society, we deserve to believe that the government has the capability of creating an honest and fair elections. Therefore, we should submit this issue to the government.
By: Mirwan Achmad *)