Vitorio Mantalean, Jakarta – A protest action by members and sympathisers of the People's Justice and Prosperity Party (Prima) in front of the General Elections Commission (KPU) in Central Jakarta on Wednesday December 14 became heated.
Prima Jakarta regional leadership board (DPW) Chairperson Nuradim managed to jump over the KPU office's fence and force his way inside, before finally being secured by a Jagat Saksana (internal security, pamdal) team.
This occurred after the Prima demonstrators tried to push their way through the KPU front gates because they were unable to meet with the KPU leadership. "Let them meet me, let them meet me", said Nuradim as he was chased away by the KPU pamdal team.
By this Nuradim meant that he wanted to be met directly by the KPU leadership or commissioners in order to convey the Prima Party's protests.
Earlier, Prima representatives were given an opportunity to enter the general election body offices but they were unable to meet with the KPU commissioners. Instead, they were met by a KPU liaison officer (LO).
"The LO only asked about the arbitration. The commissioners must convey, must have the courage to be audited and must have the courage to be transparent with the public", said Nuradim.
Nuradim claimed that the Prima protesters will hold their ground until the KPU Leadership meets with them, even though the KPU will be declaring the list of political parties (Parpol) that will take part in the 2024 elections along with their party ballot numbers later that evening.
"We will continue to hold our ground indefinitely. We will stay. I will stay until this evening", said Nuradim.
Earlier it was declared that Prima had failed to pass the administrative verification process and would therefore be unable to take part in the elections.
Prima however, has accused the KPU of tinkering with the membership data so they would fail the verification. Prima has also sued the KPU in the State Administrative Court (PTUN) over the same complaint.
"Parpols whose data was problematic did in fact pass [the verification], meanwhile parpols that should have passed, namely Prima, were instead kept from winning", said Nuradim in a press release received by Kompas.com on Wednesday morning.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Demo Prima Sempat Memanas, Ketua DPW Loncat Pagar Kantor KPU RI dan Merangsek Masuk". Prima is the electoral vehicle of the People's Democratic Party (PRD).]
