Indonesia: Election commission investigates data breach on over two million voters | AFP

Indonesia is probing how 2.3 million voters’ personal information was leaked online, the election commission said on Friday (May 22). The data breach, which included names, home addresses and national identification numbers, appeared to be from the 2014 election voter list, according to the General Election Commission. Agency commissioner Viryan Azis said an investigation had been launched into the source of the leak earlier this week.

Indonesia: Hacktivists, Bots, Elections: Indonesia Stepping Up Its Cybersecurity | Nur Yasmin/Jakarta Globe

The government should be thanked for their role in improving cybersecurity in Indonesia in the past five years, including during elections, an expert has said. “I’m seeing really good progress in Indonesian cybersecurity. A few years ago, it wasn’t as strong,” Fernando Serto, director of security technology and strategy at Akamai APJ said on the sidelines of the Akamai Security Summit in Jakarta at the end of last month. … Serto said cybercrimes often happen during elections all over the world.  “This is not unique to Indonesia; every time a country holds an election, we see a lot of hacking activity. We’ve seen it happen during elections in the Philippines and the US,” he said. “We see a lot of hacktivists, people who disagree with the policies of a particular candidate, trying to hack into their official website and put very aggressive messages on it,” Serto said.

Indonesia: Can e-voting solve Indonesia’s election woes? | The Jakarta Post

The idea of holding digital elections is picking up steam following reports that dozens of election workers died of reported extreme fatigue during and after organizing the nation’s first-ever concurrent elections, billed by many as “the world’s most complex”. While it is hard to determine if the April 17 general elections directly caused the deaths, a consensus has been reached that the current election system — in which five different paper-based elections are held on a single day — has to be changed. One of the proposed changes is for Indonesia to apply e-voting to make elections less complicated. The proposal, however, remains controversial, with lawmakers saying that even after so many election-related deaths, e-voting still seems like a distant dream. The controversy revolves around the question of whether Indonesia — an archipelago with a population of more than 250 million people — is ready for e-voting and whether the technology is the right solution to election problems. Lawmakers, election organizers, election observers and election engineers have given different answers.

Indonesia: The mind-boggling challenge of Indonesia’s election logistics | The Interpreter

How do you organise free and fair elections in a sprawling developing country beset by political corruption, bureaucratic incompetence and organisational inefficiency? For Indonesia – and its 193 million voters – the answer lies in the vast number of polling stations, the use of a metal nail (not a pen or a machine) for voting, 1.6 million bottles of halal certified ink and the practice of counting votes in public. On April 17, the world’s third most populous democracy is holding simultaneous presidential and legislative elections for the first time. It will be world’s biggest direct presidential elections (because the US uses an electoral college) and one of the most complicated single-day elections in global history. By contrast, India, which is the world’s biggest democracy, is conducting its parliamentary elections through a rolling regional process over six weeks in April and May. As the Lowy Institute’s new infographic highlights, the scale of Indonesia’s electoral process is mind-boggling, with five separate elections at once, for the president, both houses of parliament, provincial legislatures and district/city councils. Altogether, there are more than 245,000 candidates running for more than 20,000 national and local legislative seats across hundreds of islands, in addition to the headline contest between President Joko Widodo and challenger Prabowo Subianto.

Indonesia: Russian, Chinese language Hackers Interfering With Indonesian Presidential Election | Brinkwire

Indonesia has identified China and Russia as sources of an ongoing wave of relentless cyber assaults intended to disrupt the country’s presidential elections on April 17. The attacks originate in Russia and China, said Arief Budiman, head of Indonesia’s General Elections Commission or KPU. Budiman also said some of the cyberattacks are attempts to “manipulate or modify” content. Others aim to create ghost voters, or fake voter identities. “They try to hack our system,” according to Budiman. “Not only every day. Almost every hour,” he said. The KPU head said it remains unclear if the motive of this continuing wave of attacks is “to disrupt Indonesia” or to help one of the candidates win. Incumbent president Joko Widodo is squaring-off against Prabowo Subianto, a former special forces general in the election.

Indonesia: Cyber Challenge in Focus with Looming 2019 Elections | The Diplomat

Late last week, Indonesia’s military chief issued a call to the country’s security forces to upgrade their digital skills to confront a range of challenges. His comments were just the latest in a long string of similar statements issued by Indonesian officials highlighting the country’s cyber challenges as it prepares to head into presidential elections in April. As I have noted before in these pages, along with other Asian states, Indonesia has been taking steps to confront some of the cyber challenges it has long faced. Indonesia is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to cyber attacks, and the challenge has grown at an alarming rate over the past few years including under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, with the full spectrum of challenges including not just national security or e-commerce, but also in the distribution of so-called fake news and even issues related to e-voting.

Indonesia: KPU reports propagators of ‘cast ballots’ rumor to police | The Jakarta Post

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has reported fake news propagators to the police after misinformation about seven containers of cast ballots from China for presidential candidate pair Joko Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin caused uproar over the internet. “It was reported to the Cyber Crime Police and we were about to report it to the National Police,“ KPU commisioner Ilham Saputra said on Thursday as quoted by Antara. He said that on Wednesday evening until early Thursday, the KPU and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) went to Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta in response to a rumor that the ballot containers were located there. “After checking, we confirmed that the information was incorrect. There were no containers of cast ballots,” he said.

Indonesia: Protecting Indonesian elections from cyberattacks | Antara

Cyberattacks have threatened elections in several countries, and one of the major hacking cases was alleged foreign interference using cyber networks during the US presidential elections in 2016. Any form of interference in the election results, be it through money politics or cyberattacks, could endanger democratic well-being of the targeted country. Hence, cybersecurity must be taken seriously to take precautionary measures and prevent threat of cyberattacks. On April 17, 2019, Indonesia will hold simultaneous presidential and legislative elections believed to be among the most complex and largest elections in the world. Indonesia is the world`s fourth most populous nation, with some 260 million people, and the world`s largest archipelagic country, with over 17 thousand islands. Four months prior to the elections, cyberattacks have already increased in Indonesia, according to the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN).

Indonesia: Ahead of 2019 Election, Indonesia, Media Battle Fake News | VoA News

As the third largest democracy in the world with a young, mobile-first population and low levels of digital literacy, Indonesia is highly susceptible to the spread of fake news and hoaxes. Government and media-led initiatives have sought to combat fake news, however with much of the misinformation spread via social media and WhatsApp, many fear the problem will only get worse in the lead up to national elections in April 2019. “Indonesia’s media landscape is quite diverse and there is enormous press freedom in the country compared to others in the region,” says Ross Tapsell, a media lecturer at the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific. “However, it’s increasingly manipulated and influenced by media owners who are linked to political parties … push[ing] out a more partisan version of political news.”

Indonesia: Security officers claim ghosts haunt election material warehouse | The Star

Security personnel assigned to guard election material in Boyolali, Central Java, claimed that interference from ghostly beings was making their jobs scary. “Every night, we hear sounds of furniture being moved as well as people crying and laughing in the warehouse,” Boyolali Police officer Second Brig. Wahyu Setiawan said on Sunday. The suspicious sounds, he added, also came from outside the warehouse, which was built on a plot of land that used to be a public cemetery, as stated by local residents.

Indonesia: Millions of indigenous people may lose voting rights: Alliance | The Jakarta Post

Around three million indigenous people in areas across Indonesia may not be able to participate in the 2018 regional elections and 2019 legislative and presidential elections because they do not have e-ID cards, an alliance said on Thursday. Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) secretary general Rukka Sombolinggi said around one million out of the three million indigenous people lived in conservation areas, which did not belong to any village or other administrative area. Another one million are native faith followers, Rukka went on to say. Although the Constitutional Court has granted them the right to state their beliefs on their e-ID cards, they are still facing problems when they want to cite their religious preferences, she added.

Indonesia: Indonesia battles fake news as elections loom | AFP

Indonesia is battling a wave of fake news and online hate speech ahead of presidential elections in 2019, as a string of arrests underscore fears it could crack open social and religious fault lines in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. The pluralist nation’s reputation as a bastion of tolerance has been tested in recent months, as conservative groups exploit social media to spread lies and target minorities. Indonesian police have cracked down, rounding up members of the Muslim Cyber Army (MCA), a cluster of loosely connected groups accused of using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to attack the government and stoke religious extremism. Two of the group’s most high-profile falsehoods were claims that dozens of Islamic clerics had been assaulted by leftists and that Indonesia’s outlawed communist party was on the rise, according to police.

Indonesia: Jakarta election: 64,000 police, soldiers deployed to prevent intimidation as voters head to polls | ABC

Jakarta police say they are prepared for unrest as residents head to one of the most bitterly fought elections the city has ever seen. In a sign of the potential threat, a mass of more than 64,000 police, soldiers and security offices will be deployed across the capital. Indonesia’s police chief has warned against the intimidation of voters with the poll being heavily fought on religious grounds. At the capital’s national monument, known as Monas, officers rehearse drills ahead of the poll. “The brief to us is to control the crowd,” commander Muhammad Alwafi told the ABC.

Indonesia: Jakarta to vote amid religious tensions | Reuters

Jakarta voters head to the polls on Wednesday to elect a governor for Indonesia’s capital after a campaign that incited political and religious tensions in the world’s most populous Muslim country. The race to lead the city of more than 10 million has been fought by two candidates – an ethnic Chinese Christian and a Muslim. It has triggered mass protests and stirred religious and political tensions in the world’s third largest democracy.

Indonesia: Some 15,000 lose voting rights in Jakarta election | The Jakarta Post

Following months of protest by the Anies Baswedan camp concerning the possible manipulation of voter registration, the Jakarta Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) has stripped the voting rights of more than 15,000 people in the Jakarta gubernatorial election. KPU commissioner Mochammad Sidik said Tuesday that most of the 15,000 voters had been declared ineligible to vote as their identity numbers and family card numbers were not included in commission data.

Indonesia: Election Supervisors Question Accuracy of Voters List in Gubernatorial Election Runoff | Jakarta Globe

The Jakarta branch of the Election Supervisory Agency, or Bawaslu, has questioned the accuracy of the temporary voters list, or DPS, ahead of the second round of the Jakarta gubernatorial election on April 19. Bawaslu Jakarta said 46,492 voters from the permanent voters list (DPT) were missing and identified around 13,000 duplicated voter registration cards after verifying the DPS on Thursday (06/04). The DPS list was provided by the General Election Commission, or KPU.

Indonesia: Voters fear intimidation from anti-Ahok movement | The Jakarta Post

In less than three weeks, 7 million people in the capital will have the chance to exercise their voting rights in the runoff of one of the fiercest gubernatorial elections in the city’s history. While recent elections in the capital have been largely free of conflicts, this time a large mass movement called Tamasya AlMaidah (Al-Maidah Tour) has cast lingering fear among voters, especially with hard-line group Islam Defenders Front (FPI) expected to join the movement. Named after a verse in the Quran that is often used by conservative Muslim political groups to urge Muslims to vote for political candidates of the same faith as themselves, the movement aims to deploy at least 100 volunteers to supervise 1,000 polling stations that they consider prone to foul play on election day on April 19. Al-Maidah Tour initiator Farid Poniman claimed that more than 100,000 people had joined the movement and others would follow suit.

Indonesia: House to not apply e-voting in 2019 elections | The Jakarta Post

The House of Representatives has said it would not force the implementation of the electronic voting (e-voting) system in the 2019 elections as Indonesia was not yet ready. “One of the provisions agreed on by lawmakers in the deliberation of the election bill is that we will not apply the e-voting system in the near future,” said NasDem Party lawmaker Johnny G. Platte, who is also a member of the House’s special committee for the deliberation of the bill.

Indonesia: Pre-election risks, spiked by extremism, rise in Indonesia | Asia Times

When Islamic hardliners attacked a church under construction in Jakarta’s eastern suburb of Bekasi a few days ago, police arrived in force and were eventually forced to fire teargas to disperse the mob. Not long ago, they would have stood idly by and done nothing. Police links to groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which have been used in the past as a proxy stand-over force to extract protection money from businesses, go back to the pre-democracy period under former dictator Suharto when Islam was otherwise repressed. The difference now is police chief General Tito Karnavian, former head of the elite Detachment 88 counter-terrorism unit and widely viewed as an incorruptible professional. Hand-picked by President Joko Widodo last July, Karnavian will serve until 2023, a longer period in the job than any of his predecessors.

Indonesia: Visiting Indonesian lawmakers find Germany no longer implementing e-voting | The Jakarta Post

During its working visit to Germany, the special committee tasked with deliberating the election bill found that the country was no longer implementing e-voting because it was prone to hacking. The committee was on a controversial working visit to Germany and Mexico, from March 11 to 16. “We confirmed in Germany that e -voting is just as problematic. There is no supporting data and its prone to hacking,” committee member Johnny G. Plate said at the legislative complex in Senayan, as quoted by kompas.com on Monday.

Indonesia: Jakarta Election Commission to Improve Voters’ Data | Jakarta Globe

Jakarta’s Regional Election Commission, the KPUD, will update its list of voters, known as DPT, ahead of the expected run-off election in Jakarta in April, the commission’s chairman has said. “We’ve had a meeting with the KPU [General Election Commission]. We will use the list of voters in the first round as a reference for the voters’ list in the run-off election,” KPUD Chairman Sumarno said in Jakarta on Thursday (17/02). The new list will include voters who were listed in the additional list, known as DPTb, as they went to polling stations and submitted their credentials despite not being listed in the initial voters’ list there. Sumarno said they will also include Jakarta residents who were listed in the DPT during the first round but failed to turn up at polling stations.

Indonesia: Unofficial Tally Points to Second Vote for Indonesia Capital | Associated Press

Unofficial counts indicate the acrimonious election for the Indonesian capital’s governor will head to a second round in April with the incumbent, a minority Christian, failing to secure the 50 percent needed for an outright win. Most of the quick counts carried out by research companies show incumbent Gov. “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, whose campaign was hurt by blasphemy charges, winning 40-43 percent of the vote. Anies Rasyid Baswedan, a former education minister who courted conservative and hard-line Muslims, trails by a couple of points. Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, the photogenic son of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was in a distant third place that eliminates him from the contest. Religion and Ahok’s Chinese ethnicity, rather than the slew of problems that face a car-clogged and sinking Jakarta, dominated the campaign and transformed the election into a high-stakes tussle between conservatives, who want Islam to be ascendant in politics and society, and moderates.

Indonesia: Indonesians abroad return to vote, but only if it’s not too far | The Jakarta Post

Risyad Tri Setiaputra, 27, is registered as a Jakarta resident. Currently residing in Glasgow, in the United Kingdom, he has kept a close eye on every development in the heated Jakarta gubernatorial race through the internet. For Risyad, casting his vote in the Feb. 15 election is important because it will determine the future of the Indonesian capital. “Jakarta is developing now. It would be a pity if the ongoing development faced challenges because of the election result,” Risyad told The Jakarta Post via instant messaging service on Saturday. Going home only to vote, however, is certainly not an option for him. Risyad is originally from Kalimalang, East Jakarta, thousands of kilometers away from the biggest city in Scotland where he has been pursuing his master’s degree. Risyad said he would stay in Glasgow until he finished his course in October.

Indonesia: Election Commission to invite foreign observers to monitor Jakarta poll | Asian Correspondent

Indonesia’s General Elections Commission (KPU) says it will invite representatives of election commissions from across Southeast Asia and international NGOs that focus on the electoral process to observe the Jakarta gubernatorial election next month. According to Jakarta Post, the KPU will host its “Election Visit” program for the poll on Feb 15 and give observers a chance to monitor the vote. KPU commissioner Sigit Pamungkas said the program to be held at the KPU office in Central Jakarta from Feb 13 to 16 is aimed at introducing Indonesia’s election system to other countries. “We will invite the participants to monitor polling stations across Jakarta on election day. They will hopefully get an idea about the electoral process in Indonesia,” Sigit told Jakarta Post. “Apart from observing our elections, they could also share how elections are run in their respective countries,” he added.

Indonesia: Ballots for Jakarta election have been printed: Election commission | The Jakarta Post

The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) said on Thursday the ballot papers for the Feb. 15 gubernatorial election had finished being printed. The total number of ballot papers printed reached 7,292,619, which included 7,108,589 ballots for the fixed-voters list (DPT), an additional 2.5 percent of ballots for each polling station and an extra 2,000 for reserve. KPU Jakarta head Sumarno said that the ballots, which were printed by PT Adi Perkasa, in Makassar, South Sulawesi, a company which earlier won the printing tender, were still on their way via sea freight to KPU Jakarta.

Indonesia: Military eyes voting rights after 2024 | The Jakarta Post

The Indonesian Military (TNI) has once again expressed its hope to regain the right to vote in elections, saying that all regulations related to the military’s political rights should be evaluated by 2024. Speaking to members of the House of Representatives’ special committee on the election bill on Tuesday, TNI chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said the military should get their voting rights after 2024 as the country would hold regional, legislative and presidential elections that year. “There will be three elections at the same time in 2024. It’s a crucial year. It will need more attention. So 2024 will be the right time to evaluate [the regulations on TNI’s voting rights],” Gatot said.

Indonesia: Millions of people may lose voting rights | The Jakarta Post

Millions of people could lose their voting rights in the upcoming regional elections in February as the government and the House of Representatives insist that they have electronic identification cards (e-KTPs) to be eligible to vote. As of Wednesday, the Home Ministry reported that 163 million people nationwide had already registered for e-KTPs. However, the remaining 19 million people have yet to obtain the cards. Many across the country are complaining about the shortage of blangko — blank cards used to create e-KTPs consisting of seven layers and chips. Some of them also said that many registration machines in the districts are broken.

Indonesia: Government plans e-voting for 2019 presidential elections | GovInsider

The Indonesian Government is looking at electronic voting for the 2019 presidential and legislative elections. The plan is being discussed by ministries under the Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security, revealed Soedarmo, director general of politics and general administration. The government is yet to make a final decision, however. Digital voting will help eliminate fraud and will return voting results within minutes, he said, according to the Jakarta Globe. Over 700 cases of election fraud were received by the constitution court during the 2014 elections. Most cases were rejected due to lack of evidence.

Indonesia: E-Voting Touted for 2019 Election | Jakarta Globe

Measures to introduce e-voting for the 2019 presidential and legislative elections are being considered by some in the government, an official said on Monday (29/08). Soedarmo, director general of politics and general government at the Home Affairs Ministry, said the plan had been discussed between several ministries under the Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security. Speaking in Jakarta on Monday morning, Soedarmo tipped implementation for the 2019 election, but noted the government is yet to make a decision.

Indonesia: West Papua: UN must supervise vote on independence, says coalition | The Guardian

The United Nations must pass a resolution for an internationally supervised vote for independence in West Papua, global parliamentarians and independence advocates have said. In a meeting in London on Tuesday, the West Papuan independence leader, Benny Wenda, will join parliamentarians, lawyers and humanitarians from the UK and the Pacific region to demand the United Nations pass a resolution for an independence referendum, in order to make up for its “mistake” in allowing Indonesia to take control almost 50 years ago. Indonesia warns other countries to respect its sovereignty over Papua. West Papuans are the indigenous people of a region on the Western half of an island shared with Papua New Guinea. Formerly under Dutch colonisation, Indonesia took temporary control of West Papua under a UN–backed treaty in 1963. It later gained complete rule through a UN-sanctioned but discredited ballot in 1969, in which just a little over 1000 Indonesian-picked West Papuan leaders representatives cast votes under threat of violence.