Dani Prabowo, Jakarta – As many as 48 civil society organisations sent a subpoena to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo regarding alleged fraud in the 2024 elections.
The subpoena was delivered directly by Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Coordinator Dimas Bagus Arya to the Ministry of State Secretariat (Kemensetneg) in Central Jakarta on Thursday March 7.
This is the second subpoena delivered to President Widodo after he failed to respond to the first one sent on February 9.
"In this second subpoena in essence we are underlining whether the president still has the will and ethics in maintaining leadership ethics, moral ethics, of the nation and state?", said Arya on Thursday.
Arya said that there were three points conveyed by the 48 organisations in the subpoena.
First, regarding allegations of fraud in the general election process that were discovered, starting from pre-election fraud in which it was deemed there was cawe-cawe (meddling) by the head of state, to Widodo's statement in which he said that the president can take sides.
The organisations claimed to have found evidence of other cases of fraud involving ministers.
"We again found that officials, active ministers were also involved in a number of campaign events without any kind of public information on whether those concerned were on leave. And whether those concerned were using state facilities or not", said Arya.
Second, on the issue of Widodo's role in preventing leadership patterns so they are free from corruption, collusion and nepotism. They referred to Law Number 28/1999 which relates to administrating a state that is free from corruption, collusion and nepotism.
"Government administration must be free from any kinds of matters relating to the family or interests connected to relations, relatives, and so on. So we see this as one of the things that happened and ultimately created forms of unrest in society", he said.
Third, they highlighted Widodo's behavior such that he was unable to control election organisers, namely the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu).
Kontras noted that there were at least four alleged ethical violations committed by KPU Chairperson Hasyim Asyari. These violations, said Arya, should have been responded to by the Palace.
"In particular, the Pak [Mr] President dismissing the person concerned, because he was proven to be incompetent and unable to carry out his responsibilities and functions", explained Arya.
It was noted that there were several things that the activists asked Widodo to do, namely apologising to the public, summoning and reprimanding active ministers involved in campaigns, as well as dismissing the chairpersons of the Bawaslu and the KPU.
"We feel that this subpoena will ultimately lead to legal aspects, or resistance through legal channels", explained Arya.
The activists gave Widodo seven days to respond to the subpoena.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "48 Organisasi Ajukan Somasi ke Jokowi Soal Dugaan Pelanggaran Pemilu 2024".]
