JAKARTA - The Civil Society Coalition has asked the General Elections Commission, the House of Representatives, and the government to consider postponing local elections to 2021 due to Indonesia’s high coronavirus (COVID-19) infection rate.
As of Monday (25/5), Indonesia has 22,271 confirmed COVID-19 cases, the second-highest in Southeast Asia after Singapore, with 1,372 deaths.
“Local elections should be held in the interest of humanity by guaranteeing [participants’] safety and health,” said the Coalition’s representative and Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) Executive Director Titi Anggraini as quoted by CNN Indonesia on Monday.
According to Ms Anggraini, holding local elections during the COVID-19 pandemic can trigger various issues such as high transmission potential, politicisation of social assistance, unequal contestation between incumbents and challengers, and lower voter turnout.
In addition, she said, Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 2/2020, which was issued in early May, does not offer any solution to issues surrounding this year’s local elections.
“The regulation doesn’t seem to be based on the understanding that election preparations will need to begin in June in order to ensure that voting and vote calculations can take place in December 2020,” Ms Anggraini remarked.
“There is no guarantee that June will see the end of coronavirus infections.” (MS)