The Indonesian General Election for Parliament (DPR) and the Presidential election were held concurrently in April 2019. The elections were fair and went smoothly, however, improvements to the organization of the elections are possible to prevent fraud and vote rigging. Some issues that need to be tackled are, for example, the length of the campaign period, the monitoring system, and political bribery.
The panelists agreed that the current election preparation system needs to be finetuned. There is a lack of regulation, for example, regarding campaign financing and permissible campaign events. KPU and BAWASLU, the leading oversight bodies therefore must be further strengthened.
In order for the next elections in the year 2024 to be successful again, some lessons must be learned from the last elections. For example, increased oversight and monitoring powers should be given to the election bodies. Especially during the campaign period, but also during the vote counting process, a maximum of transparency and accountability is needed. The panellists agreed that these goals should be achievable as there now are five years’ time to overhaul the current regulations and prepare for the next elections.