Jakarta, IO – Next week, in Magetan Regency of East Java, there will be simultaneous village elections, where e-voting will be implemented. So advanced.
“In 2019, I actually wanted to use e-voting entirely,” said Magetan Regent Suprawoto. “I asked for the Home Ministry’s permission but it was not granted,” he said.
In 2018, Suprawoto had just been elected Regent. He received a report from his staff that next year there should be simultaneous village chief elections (pilkades).
It was at that time that Suprawoto came up with an idea to use an e-voting system. Of course, Suprawoto’s background as a former official at the Communications and Information Ministry (Kominfo) was a factor in the decision.
“With e-voting we can save up to 60 percent,” he said. “For a regency like Magetan, Rp25 billion is a huge amount. It can be used to build a number of bridges, several kilometers of roads,” he said.
I met Suprawoto yesterday. He is setting up a bamboo garden across more than 30 hectares of land in Sukomoro, on the periphery of the Madiun-Magetan highway. Different species of bamboo are planted there.
Suprawoto wished to conduct e-voting in the most efficient and economical way. Partially simultaneous, 18 village elections per week. This way, all villages will have their elections done in two months.
To do this, the regency administration only needs to buy 18-20 laptops. The same laptops will be used in the next 18 villages, and so on. Very cost-efficient.