Jakarta, IO – Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Sufmi Dasco Ahmad has stated that the meeting between the General Election Commission (KPU) and Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) members with House leaders is nothing more than a gathering.
“I need to clarify the fact that KPU and Bawaslu members did not try to keep the meeting a secret. They were explicit about the friendly visits. They visited not only Cak Imin (Muhaimin Iskandar) but also Puan Maharani, as the Speaker of the House, and other deputy speakers of the House, myself included,” explained Dasco in Jakarta, Monday (3/14/2022).
The meeting was intended to serve as a self-introduction of the newly-elected election organizers. Dasco, a politician from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), expressed the hope that such meetings would not arouse a controversy around the issue of a potential postponement of the 2024 elections, as proposed by National Awakening Party (PKB) General Chairman Muhaimin Iskandar. “They first visited my place before they went to meet Cak Imin,” explained Dasco.
Dasco suggested that the friendly visit could be set in the future as a custom for newly-elected election organizers, while not yet sworn in, to pay a visit and make a self-introduction. He added, “They came here together.”
Deputy Speaker of Committee II of the House Junimart Girsang shared a similar opinion. “The meeting was just a friendly visit – an introduction of the elected KPU-Bawaslu members to the Speaker of the House. I was with the House Speaker at the meeting on Thursday, March 10,” he stated.
Junimart revealed that the topics discussed by Puan Maharani with the elected KPU-Bawaslu members simply focused on how to align election organizers’ work with the Constitution, while acting professionally, independently and transparently.
Meanwhile, Achmad “Awiek” Baidowi, Secretary of the United Development Party (PPP) faction of the House, claimed that the meeting had sparked public suspicion, pointing to the fact that Cak Imin was one of the proponents of the 2024 election postponement. He advised Cak Imin to be more thoughtful in the current situation.
Awiek, as the PPP Central Executive Board Chairman, argued that the KPU and Bawaslu members should have met with all the House Speakers, if the context of the friendly visits was indeed merely a meeting between KPU-Bawaslu with the House leaders. He added, “But if the context is a friendly visit with political parties’ general chairmen in the Parliament, then they must also meet with all parties’ leaders for a balanced perspective, and thus calm public suspicions.”
He further said that the KPU and Bawaslu members were officially elected as the election committee for 2022-2027, even though they have not yet been inaugurated by the President. (des)