Jakarta Sunday, 21 September 2025. The Election Commission canceled its Decision No. 731 Year 2025 on Required Documents for Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates as Exception to Public Information in Jakarta on 16 September 2025, through a pres conference and a Decision Letter No. 805.

This decision was a response to the public criticism and demand that saw the decision not in lline with the principle of information openess. The Election Commission’s action indicated that it did not listen to the “people’s aspiration”. It strongly suggested that the Election Commission had been unprofessional in its action. The Election Commission showed reckless attitude towards its mandate. This happened not only once, but repeatedly since the beginning stage of election process in 2024, and at the end of 2022. For us, the Election Commission was fully responsible for what happened to the democracy in Indonesia at the moment.

The Civi Society Coalition noted a number of “sins”which the Election Commission had committed between 2022 and 2025, doth during election and beyond election time:

Establishment of the Election Commission Law (PKPU) Not In Line with the Law or the Decision by the Contritutional Court

Selama tahapan pemilu dan pilkada 2024 KPU telah membentuk sejumlah PKPU yang tidak mematuhi ketentuan UU dan amanat putusan MK. Koalisi masyarakat sipil mencatat setidaknya terdapat 5 PKPU yang dibentuk dengan memiliki pertentangan dengan UU maupun putusan MK. First, PKPU No. 10 Year 2023 and PKPU No. 11 Year 2023 had different rules from the Election Law with regards to quote for women representation of a minimum 30% and the requirement with regards to people sentenced for corruption. With regards to the two PKPUs, the Indonesian Supreme Court had issued a decision to cancel a number of articles not in line with the Law.
Second, PKPU No. 8 Year 2024 had different rules from the Constitutional Court Decision No. 2/PUU-XXI/2023 regarding the term of office district administrators and acting district administrator. The result, the Constitutional Court ordered a number of districts, such as Tasikmalaya and South Bengkulu, ordered a new election. Third, PKPU No. 14 Year 2024, which already abolished rule regarding sanction of disqualification, did not follow the regulation regarding reporting time for Campaign Fund Income and Expenditure Report. This was a drawback for transparent and accountable election.

In addition, the Election Commission was not impementing the Constitutional Court Decision No. 80/PUU-XX/2022 that ordered re-arrangement of seat allocation and election zones for 2024 election. The keypoint of the PKPU issue was had to do with the questionable independence of the Election Commission. The latter tried to abide by the atipulation of the Law and the Constitutional Court decision, as evident in a number of review and draft of PKPU, which looked fine. Yet, KPU always changed direction and ‘sold’its independence by adoting the consultation meeting results with Commission 2 of the Indonesian Parliament, which were essentially non-binding.

Use of Technology and Bad Information System

The use of information system in election shoud consolidate transparency, accountability, and public participation. Unfortunately, the technology used by the Election Commission showed a number of critica weaknesses and bad use of technology and information system. They were not making it easire for the public to access information, instead the information technology used by the Election Commission led to many issues (chaos) in 2024 election.

This was evident in the use of the Election Recapitulation Information System. Sirekap was initially designed to record and publish the recapitulation process of the tabulation results from the election, and yet it was not ready when the time came to use it. While the 2024 election voting recap was still happening, the Election Commission instead shut access to public tabulation by taking offline the diagram showing voting results during Presidential Election, National and District Parliament Electionsfrom its Sirekap website. Shutting access made it difficult for the people to monitor, while at the same time open space for suspicion about vote manipulation, and disregard the principles of transparency and public trust that should have been a primary concern.

The other issue was data breach of more than 252 million people in the Voter Information Data System (Sidalih). The data consisted at least of Population Identification Number (NIK), Houesehold Identification Number (NKK), ID Card Nuber (Nomor KTP), Passport Number, name, voting place, status regrding disability, sex, date and place of birth, marriage status, and address. This incidence led to the leak of citizens’personal data in dark web, hence indicating the negligence and inability of the Election Commission to secure its system.

The Lack of Transparency in Public Information

The Election Commission had violated the constitutional rights of the voters to get information about campaign contribution, by not devolving campaign funds information comprehensively in its website on Campaign System and Funds (Sikadeka). The website was originally conceived to show activities rregarding canpaign finance receipt and expenditure in real time and updated daily. In fact, it only showed information regarding dates and amount of receipt and expenditure, without information about who gave the money and details regarding the forms of contribution. Such information was essential for monitoring in order to prevent corruption in politics later on as often happened to compensate for the contribution that people made. The absence of information regarding campaign finance showed that the election process managed by the Election Commission was not in line with the spirit off corruption eradication.

The Election Commission also sided with candidates with vested interests than with the voters by not requiring parliament candidates to show their curriculum vitae (credentials). Such credential and their past experience and performance were critical for voters to choose their preferred candidates for public office.

In the middle of this competence crisis amongst State officials, the curriculum vitae of candidates would be critical to ensure that people chose the most competent, professional candidates with high integrity. The Election Commission action(s) showed that the 2024 election was far from the principles of transparency and accountability.
Moral Hazard amongst Members of the Election Commission

Troubled ethics amongst Election Commission members were not just about bad decision and policies, but also the quality of work performed by the Electtion Commission. The situation had been evident since the beginning of the Election Commission for 2022-2027 inauguration. The chairperson of the Election Commission was inaugurated in 2022, and had two cases – morality and sexual violence. The first case involved the chairperson close relationship with Hasnaeni Moein - the chairperson of Partai Republik Satu. The second case involved member of Election Committe stationed in the Netherllands (C), which led to the dismissal of Hasyim Asyari - the chairperson of the Election Commission for 2022-2024.

Moral Hazard amongst members of the Election Commission was evident during political party verification process. There was evidence of a number of political parties who failed to meet the standard to pass for a number of reasons. This incident led to the dismissal off a number of commissioners and staff within the District Election Commission for data manipulation. Additionally, the Election Commission for 2022–2027 had been noted for serious wastefulness and misuse of State facilities. Within the period between January and March 2024, the Election Commission used private jet for 59 visits, despite the facts that the Election Commission only ackkowledged only 31 visits, which involved the chairperson of th Election Commission, beberapa a number of Commissioners, and the Electio Commission Secretariat officers.
We believe that the major issue within the Election Commission was one of the causes of so many problems in national and district election in 2024. The Election Commission for 2022-2027 had violated the election ethical code with regards to the principles of independence, proffesionalism, transparency and accountability. For this reason, a total reset of the Election Commission is critical to save our democracy. Hence, we urge:

1. The President and the Parliament to recommend the dismissal of the Election Commission members for 2022-2027 to the Honorary Councils of the Indonesian Election Organisers (DKPP).
2. DKPP to take action by dismissing all members of the Election Commission for 2022-2027.
3. The establlishment of Law to re-arrange comprehensively the institutio of Election Commission, establishment of a selection team, and recruitment mechanism for election in Election Law being revised.
4. Moratorium for filling in position off the members of the Election Commission until the new Election Law comes into effect.
   
   
   The above is our media statement, thank you.
   Jakarta, 21 September 2025
   Yours Sincerely,
   Election Law Codification Coalition
   
   Contact People:

•  Perkumpulan untuk Pemilu dan Demokrasi (Perludem).
• Pusat Studi Konstitusi (PUSaKO) FH Universitas Andalas.
• Pusat Kajian Politik (Puskapol) Universitas Indonesia.
• Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia (KPI).
• Network for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (NETGRIT).
• Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW).
• Pusat Studi Hukum dan Kebijakan Indonesia (PSHK).
• Themis Indonesia.
• Migrant CARE.