The Ganjar-Mahfud Legal Team Suddenly Meets with the Chairman of the KPU, What’s Going On?

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Legal Deputy for the National Winning Team (TPN) Ganjar-Mahfud, Todung Mulya Lubis and his staff met the Chairman of the Indonesian KPU Hasyim Asy’ari at his office, Central Jakarta, Tuesday (9/1/2024). Todung conveyed various issues related to the 2024 presidential election to Hasyim.

“So today, Tuesday 9 January 2024, the KPU received a friendly visit from the National Winning Team for candidate pair number 3, Mas Ganjar and Pak Mahfud,” said Hasyim to the media crew after the meeting.

Todung said that his party met with Hasyim to convey a number of issues with the aim of maintaining the quality and integrity of the 2024 presidential election. According to Todung, there were many communication errors that occurred and now there are doubts in the public’s mind regarding the holding of the election.

“We conveyed to Mr Hasyim earlier that there is skepticism in the minds of the public regarding several things regarding whether it is the neutrality of the apparatus, whether it is money politics, whether it is several other things which we might call criminalization in the election process that is currently being held, said Todung.

Todung added that his party also asked Hasyim for an explanation regarding the issue of ballot papers being sent outside of schedule to voters in Taiwan. Also asked was the issue of voting simulations using dummy ballot papers which only consisted of two columns for presidential and vice presidential candidates, even though there were three candidate pairs.

“We have received quite a lot of explanation from Pak Hasyim as Chairman of the KPU. And we understand the many complexities, the many problems that we face together,” he said.

TPN Ganjar-Mahfud, said Todung, understands that the KPU actually has clear guidelines in holding the 2024 presidential election. However, he continued, excesses will of course appear in various forms during the 2024 presidential election process.

Todung hopes that TPN and KPU can work together to improve the quality of the 2024 presidential election. One of them is by improving communication links considering that KPU has opened hotline.

“So, we will continue to communicate with the KPU if something happens in the field that requires communication and clarification from the KPU,” he said.

“We believe that there is a commitment from the KPU to build a truly democratic election and presidential election ecosystem, so that Indonesia remains respected in the world in this political contestation,” added the dispute resolution legal expert.