The excitement surrounding Indonesia’s 2024 Regional Elections (Pilkada) is growing. Various parties, including the General Election Commission (KPU), are actively preparing for this democratic event.
In the 2024 Pilkada, KPU will again utilize Sirekap as a supportive application for vote recapitulation.
The purpose of Sirekap is to facilitate the detection of fraud or errors by both the public and KPU, particularly in converting C-1 data from vote counts.
Sirekap replaces the Vote Counting Information System (Situng) used in the 2019 General Election, tested in the 2020 Pilkada, and widely used in the 2024 election.
In response to the reintroduction of Sirekap for the 2024 Pilkada, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UGM Center for Digital Society (CfDS) Iradat Wirid welcomed the plan.
He believes that Sirekap is an excellent tool to support the accountability of the election process.
“Sirekap is a great tool because election results become transparent, and everyone can see the voting results in real-time, unlike before when it took a long time to see the results,” he said on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024.
While Sirekap may assist field officers, Wirid argues that several improvements are necessary to support its use.
He cited the need for internet access to upload data, which could be provided directly at each polling station (TPS) or by establishing internet service points to send offline server data.
“Another thing KPU needs to prepare for Sirekap is introduction and technical guidance so that TPS officers can understand how to use the application,” he added.
Wirid emphasized that this needs to be done well in advance, as some regions only received Sirekap training one week before the election.
This system introduction is crucial to avoid confusion when entering data or discrepancies between photographed data and what the application reads.
He also stressed that KPU must continue testing Sirekap before its use in the Pilkada to ensure users are trained to read incoming data.
Additionally, Wirid mentioned that KPU, the party responsible for Sirekap, should engage with the public to clarify any misinformation or disinformation about Sirekap.
One prevalent rumor concerned the server used by KPU to store election data. Therefore, KPU needs to be transparent about the server’s location.
“This server should also be easily accessible, especially during peak times when TPS officers are entering data, to minimize the risk of unreadable data or errors,” he stated.
Finally, Wirid emphasized the need for an introduction to help the public understand that the data available in Sirekap is not final; it will undergo further tiered recapitulation.
“So, the public should also know that, for example, the current data is from the TPS. They should also know when the data has been confirmed at the village level, which will eventually lead to national recapitulation,” he concluded.
Author: Lazuardi
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Lintang
Photos: Freepik and RRI