While Indonesia’s next election is taking place Wednesday, Indonesians living abroad have already begun voting, with those in Malaysia set to cast their ballots this Sunday. However, they may have to wait longer after the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) requested that the voting process in Malaysia be suspended while they investigate troubling allegations of tampered Indonesians ballots, supposedly found in the Malaysian state of Selangor, emerged online.
Videos and photos have emerged on social media that allegedly show number black plastic bags filled with ballots sitting unguarded in a shophouse, with many having already been marked to indicate a vote for candidate pair #01, President Joko Widodo and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin.
Hajatan #Pemilu2019 untuk rakyat Indonesia di Malaysia baru akan digelar hari Ahad, 14 April 2019. Tapi hari ini, WNI setempat menemukan berkantong-kantong kertas suara tercoblos di sebuah ruko di Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.#MesinPolitik #SuratSuarayangTercoblos pic.twitter.com/Mg4J3c0ng4
— ISJET (@iskandarjet) April 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/YogiDamara3/status/1116246697540087808
According to Bawaslu, elements of the viral posts were confirmed by the Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) of Malaysia, which is charged with organizing and overseeing the voting for Indonesian citizens living in the neighboring country. On that basis, the election agency asked for the voting process to be suspended pending further investigation.
“We have made recommendations about the questionable performance of members of PPLN (the Overseas Election Committee, charged with organizing and overseeing election voting in other countries). We will ask the KPU to stop voting throughout Malaysia,” Bawaslu member Fritz Edward Siregar told Detik when asked for confirmation.
Fritz said there were suspicions that PPLN did not carry out its duties properly, leading to the tampered ballots, which were allegedly found in Selangor. But he said Bawaslu was still waiting for KPU’s determination regarding the ballot and whether they have already been tampered with.
A spokesperson for Jokowi’s campaign, Inas Nasrullah Zubir, responded to the news by raising the possibility that it had been engineered by Prabowo supporters to help push their election fraud narrative, arguing that one of the videos shows a man who can be seen flashing the #02 sign with his hand, a sign of support for candidate #02, Prabowo and his running mate Sandiaga Uno.
While the veracity of the tampered ballots is yet to be determined, the story will no doubt add fuel to conspiracy theories currently being pushed by Prabowo and many of his supporters about the election being rigged due to fraud and manipulation by Jokowi’s government. The former general and his allies have called upon supporters to guard the ballot boxes and not accept the result if fraud is detected, even threatening to take to the streets in massive protests should the vote not go their way.
However, the vast majority of recent polling suggests the incumbent has a commanding double-digit lead over the challenger, leading some to suggest the fraud talk is aimed at saving face should Jokowi soundly defeat Prabowo once again as he did in 2014.
