IO, Jakarta – Viral photos and videos showing incorrect voting data entries in the KPU (General Election Commission) Counting Information System (Situng) has caused the public to ask whether the mistakes which led to a decrease in votes for Prabowo-Sandi and increase for Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin was a result of human error or malicious intention.
“This is the most unique incident of human error in the world, that the human error consistently only decreased the votes for Prabowo-Sandi and consistently added votes for Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin. For the KPU this is human error, but this seems more like human order,” said Democratic Party Advocation and Legal Division Head, and Prabowo-Sandi National Success Team (BPN) spokesperson Ferdinand Hutahean.
The torrent of protests from the public, questioning the seemingly massive fraud resulting in decreased votes for presidential candidate serial number 02 was not immediately responded to by the KPU causing unease in the public and could potentially spark conflict.
“How could the mistakes consistently decrease Prabowo and add to Jokowi’s votes. We hope the KPU relieves the tension in the public, causing a mistrust as a result of the KPU,” said Ferdinand.
Ferdinand stated that the KPU must act professionally as they are the organizers of the 2019 General Election. He is worried that the public’s trust in the KPU will decrease. “The public will deem the KPU to have done this purposely. The public will lose trust. This election will be in the balance,” he asserted.
KPU data entry mistakes happened in at least five regions: Maluku, West Nusa Tenggara, Central Java, Riau, and East Jakarta. The KPU immediately changed the Situng website display and data after reports of the mistakes. KPU asked organizers in regions doing scans to upload C1 forms for corrections.
Separately, KPU Commissioner Pramono Ubaid Tanthowi stated that his side was attempting to be transparent in recapitulating the votes in the 2019 General Elections, especially in the Presidential Elections. The KPU rejected the negative criticisms relating to the inputting of election data into Situng. The KPU suspects that data entry mistakes are a result of human error. “With the current system input, data mistakes can be corrected. We publish them so everyone can see. If there is a written mistake or entry mistake then it can be corrected, improved,” he said.
KPU Chairman Arief Budiman previously stated that there is no intention of fraud. “If there are those who suspect that we are committing fraud, would we publish it? So, I assert there is no intention to commit fraud. If there are input mistakes, I suspect that is purely a result of human error in the Counting Information System (Situng),” he explained. (D. Ramdani)