TRIBUNNEWS.COM, JAKARTA – The increasing number of re-votes (PSU) for the 2024 regional head elections indicates a gap in Indonesia’s electoral system.
Researcher at the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Heroik Pratama, emphasized that the government and DPR need to immediately design stricter regulations to prevent negligence by election organizers.
“The government and DPR need to immediately design stricter regulations to prevent organizers’ negligence,” Heroik said in his statement, Thursday (6/3/2025).
According to Heroik, strict sanctions must be imposed on the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) who are proven to be responsible for administrative errors that cause PSUs.
“The sanctions can be in the form of cutting the operational budget or removing related officials. Thus, there is an incentive for organizers to work more professionally,” he explained.
In addition to stricter sanctions, supervision of election organizers also needs to be strengthened by involving civil society and independent institutions.
Transparency in reporting mechanisms and investigations into alleged violations is crucial so that corrective action can be taken immediately before polling day.
This aims to avoid PSUs that not only waste the state budget, but also have the potential to disrupt regional political stability.
Political education for election organizers and election participants must also be a concern.
Many PSU cases occur due to a weak understanding of election rules or a low commitment to the principles of honest and fair democracy.
With intensive training and stricter sanctions, it is hoped that the quality of election administration in the future can improve.
Seeing the increasing trend of PSUs and disqualifications, the government and DPR cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that there are still many loopholes in election governance that can be exploited for certain interests.
“If there are no stricter regulations, the threat to democracy in Indonesia will continue,” concluded Heroik.
For information, the PSU for the 2024 Pilkada set a record for the highest in post-reform history. The Constitutional Court (MK) ordered PSUs in 24 regions.
The Constitutional Court found various violations that led to the PSU decision, ranging from administrative negligence to structured, systematic and massive (TSM) fraud.
This phenomenon highlights the weakness of election management and the negligence of organizers, which has led to political uncertainty and a decline in public confidence.
One prominent example of a PSU case was in Mahakam Ulu Regency, where the Constitutional Court found that the Regent actively used regional funds to win a particular candidate pair.
Similarly, in Serang Regency, the Constitutional Court considered that there had been an abuse of authority by a Minister who supported his wife in the Pilkada contestation.
Similar violations also occurred in various other regions, so the Constitutional Court had no choice but to order PSU as a form of correction to the process that had taken place.
Not only PSUs, the Constitutional Court also imposed disqualification sanctions on candidate pairs in 11 regions, including Pasaman Regency, South Bengkulu, and North Gorontalo.
These disqualifications mostly occurred due to serious administrative violations, such as the use of social assistance programs for electoral purposes and the use of state facilities that should be neutral.
This article has been published on Tribunnews.com with the title PSU High, Perludem: The Government and DPR Immediately Design Strict Regulations to Prevent KPU Bawaslu’s Negligence, https://www.tribunnews.com/nasional/2025/03/06/psu-tinggi-perludem-pemerintah-dan-dpr-segera-rancang-regulasi-ketat-cegah-kelalaian-kpu-bawaslu.