Bawaslu: Election regulations must be adaptive to digitalisation

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesian Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) member Puadi has stated that election regulations must be refined to adapt to technological developments and digitalisation. “How can we formulate regulatory changes that are adaptive to technological developments and digitalisation? This is crucial because electoral stages are becoming increasingly complex, including forms of administrative violations,” Puadi said while opening a public discussion titled “Finding the Formulation for Implementing Supervisory and Decision-Making Functions to Strengthen the Election Supervisory Institution” at the Bawaslu building in Jakarta on Thursday. He assessed that technological advancements present new challenges in election administration, so regulatory design must be prepared to anticipate these dynamics, including in handling administrative violations. He said regulatory refinement is one of the strategic issues discussed by Bawaslu together with Commission II of the House of Representatives, academics, and election activists as part of efforts to strengthen the institution ahead of the 2029 elections. In addition to adapting to technological developments, the forum also discussed institutional strengthening to guarantee independence, impartiality, and objectivity in the execution of Bawaslu’s duties. According to Puadi, Bawaslu is also pushing for the strengthening of the legitimacy of its decisions so that they not only have legal force but also gain public trust. “Every strengthening of authority is accompanied by strengthening accountability, transparency, professionalism, including qualified human resource capacity,” he said. Puadi emphasised that strengthening Bawaslu is not solely about enlarging the institution’s authority, but rather about enhancing the quality of democracy through improved electoral administration mechanisms. “I believe that strengthening Bawaslu is not merely about enlarging our institution’s authority, but also about how we strengthen the quality of the democracy we aspire to. The better the administrative mechanisms, the greater the public’s trust in the election results,” he concluded.