Jakarta – The KPU was asked by Deputy Chairman of the Constitutional Court (MK) Saldi Isra to no longer use serial numbers in the next Pilkada. Perludem agrees with the proposal.
“I think the proposal is good. So in the future, election participants will just use the alphabet,” said Perkumpulan for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) researcher Fadli Ramadhanil via text message to detikcom, Friday (17/1/2025).
So that later, the order on the ballot paper is based on the alphabet of the election participants. This is important so that voters can better remember the candidates for officials to be elected, rather than serial numbers.
Even so, Fadli does not have data related to cases of violations of alleged favoritism due to this sequence number in the last Pilkada. However, he firmly believes that the elimination of serial numbers can reduce cases of partisanship.
“But this serial number is often related to the symbol of a finger, a hand, for an apparatus that should not take sides. If there is no serial number anymore, this can be minimized,” he continued.
Previously, this proposal was expressed by Saldi Isra in the South Tangerang (Tangsel) Pilkada dispute trial with case number 223/PHPU.WAKO-XXIII/2025 at the Constitutional Court Building, Central Jakarta, Friday (17/1/2025). South Tangerang KPU’s attorney, Saleh, initially explained the alleged violation of KPU’s neutrality in the Tangsel Pilkada due to airing advertisements with one-finger gestures.
The ad was aired on one of the TV stations on November 21, 2024 during the candidate pair debate. On November 22, 2024, the Tangsel KPU conducted an evaluation and asked the TV station to remove the ad.
“On November 23, the TV station has taken down the public service advertisement. Then on November 24, 2024, a letter was received from the South Tangerang City Bawaslu, which basically asked the respondent to make improvements to public service advertisements, take down,” he explained.
Saldi also highlighted the use of serial numbers in the elections. Saldi asked the KPU to no longer use serial numbers in the next election.
“In the future, if there are two, three candidate pairs, there is no need to give numbers anymore. The important thing is that the picture is voted for. This is about this number, it is indeed troublesome, because sometimes people are already in the habit of doing this (pointing one finger), then suddenly they are considered to be taking sides,” said Saldi.
This article has been published on Detiknews with the title “Perludem Agrees No More Sequential Numbers in Pilkada: Use the Alphabet”, https://news.detik.com/berita/d-7737991/perludem-setuju-tak-ada-lagi-nomor-urut-di-pilkada-pakai-abjad-aja.