Representation Reform
Reform of electoral and legislative processes, voter education, and exposing funding sources are essential steps in Indonesia’s transition to a fully democratic society. The Partnership continues to work with local partners to implement good governance programs in local legislatures and encourage politicians to respond to the needs of their electorate.
Election Oversight – Training the BAWASLU
Especially in regional areas, many members of the Bawaslu and Panwaslu staff were newcomers, with little experience in administering or supervising elections. The role of their Secretariat is particularly important because these are the people who receive reports and follow up allegations of electoral violations.
Realizing that a lack of skills and experience would severely impair their functioning, during the six months in the build up to the elections, the Partnership, using multi donor project funds, delivered a series of training activities. The Partnership worked closely with Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and Transparency International Indonesia (TII) to develop and deliver a series of capacity bilding activities to Panwaslu members from 33 provinces.
Creating Informed and Empowered Voters
The Partnership has long acknowledged the importance of CSOs in ensuring that elections occur with integrity, and worked closely with SEKNAS FITRA to design a public advocacy strategy for voter education, with a view to increasing the level of public scrutiny of expenditure and holding candidates to their promises.
The project team highlighted candidates’ past policies - those that were actually implemented – in education, legal reform, resource management and poverty alleviation, and then published these in a range of media outlets.
Helping the General Electoral Commission (KPU)
The Partnership, with support from the Australian Electoral Commission, and with UNDP funding, developed a series of manuals to help the KPU prepare for the 2009 elections, as well as training for election organizers and voting organizers.
The Partnership also worked with the Indonesian Accounting Association and the KPU to develop guidelines for campaign finance disclosure and carried out a series of workshops to provide technical assistance to electoral candidates.
This project also supervised funds from regional budgets and reported any misuse of campaign funds to the General Election Commission, the Bawaslu or their regional counterparts, generating investigations in several provinces.
