The upcoming 2024 Indonesia general election will be conducted in the same manner as it always has been. But as technology in Indonesia has progressed, the idea of advancing the election with the help of technology comes to mind. Shifting the traditional way requiring manual labor to count voices will come with many cyber threats. Indonesia, infamously known for its weak security should be a warning to the government for the idea of using electronic voting.
The idea of turning Indonesia’s traditional way of election is not alien. It is a common agenda for the government to try and study the possibility of electronic voting whenever a general election is close. On March 2023, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology pushed the idea of electronic voting in Indonesia by benchmarking with countries that are successfully applying electronic voting. Despite the hopeful agenda, Indonesia will still stick to its traditional way despite the body count of 894 Indonesians in the previous general election.
What are the problems?
Electronic voting is still a risky choice despite the advancement in technology that the world has achieved. Indonesia with more than 270 million population has a disadvantage compared to a smaller country when it comes to applying electronic voting. The risk of fraud will be higher, especially since not all part of Indonesia has stable access to the Internet. Quoted to World Bank, there were approximately 94 million adults who did not have a connection to the internet. The agenda of converting Indonesia’s traditional-simple voting system to electronic voting should be postponed until every Indonesian can have a good connection to the internet.
Recently, amidst the upcoming celebration of democracy in Indonesia, BAWASLU, the General Election Supervisory Agency announced that they are forming a Computer Security Incident Response Team (CISRT) to guarantee protection for the upcoming 2024 election. Puadi, a BAWASLU spokesperson stated that there were 7.650 cyber attacks aimed at BAWASLU. The objective of the newest formed CISRT is to conduct a comprehensive investigation and protect the data or system, while also restoring data if there are any attacks on BAWASLU. Puadi also said that the most vulnerable time during the election is during campaigns, and it will increase during the recapitulation. BAWASLU’s action is one great step towards an awareness of cyber threats.
So, does that mean Indonesia will be ready for electronic voting in the near future?
Nobody knows the exact answer, as electronic voting is still a risky (and costy with Indonesia’s current internet infrastructure) procedure.
One of many principles of the general election, which is secrecy will be hard to be fulfilled. A voter needs to be verified by the system to have a guaranteed safe election and to avoid fraud, but this also means the system needs to save the voters’ data which will eliminate the secrecy of the election.
Not only that, but not all generations have good access to and knowledge of computers and online systems. This could cause some folks, especially the older generation to feel uneasy and makes a mistake during the voting. Helping and assisting them would seem like a good choice, but it also means the elimination of secrecy during the process. Teaching and guiding them before voting is also a choice, but it would not eliminate their alienation from technology, as their generation did not have a great start with technology as the younger generation have.
Sticking to a method that all generations are familiar with and more secure with the current technology is a wise choice. This is also the case with Germany which stopped using electronic voting and went back to paper ballots due to the computer operating technique that not all generations can do.
Read our other works:
• Everything You Need to Know About Zero-Day Attack
• Domain-domain Baru ZIP Memunculkan Debat di Antara Para Ahli Cybersecurity
• Which One Do You Need, VPN or DNS?
References:
• https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1702039/bawaslu-luncurkan-tim-respons-untuk-cegah-serangan-siber-di-pemilu-2024
• https://www.kompas.id/baca/polhuk/2023/03/31/bawaslu-waspadai-serangan-siber-di-tahapan-kampanye-dan-rekapitulasi-suara
• https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/electronic-voting-risks/
• https://www.news24.com/fin24/e-voting-which-countries-use-it-where-has-it-failed-and-why-20190510
