Recent months have seen claims that the 2019 Indonesian elections may be marked by significant irregularities. Senior political party figures and social media influencers have claimed that the electoral roll has been manipulated or could be hacked and have cast doubt over the likely reliability of the vote count. They have also claimed that the civil service and security forces are being mobilised in support of particular candidates. These claims have come, in particular, from figures in the coalition supporting Prabowo Subianto, the challenger to President Joko Widodo.
Is there evidence to support these claims? What safeguards are in place for the Indonesian polls? What role will civil society, electoral bodies and the government play in ensuring a fair election?
In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Titi Anggraini, executive director of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) and Dr Fritz Edward Siregar, a commissioner from Indonesia’s Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu). This is the latest episode in Talking Indonesia’s weekly 2019 elections series, which will continue until after polling day on 17 April.
The Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Deakin University, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from Singapore Management University and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University.
Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast weekly until after the elections, an every fortnight thereafter. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app.
Photo by Galih Pradipta for Antara.
