M-VOTING

Joko Widodo faces challenges in 2019 Indonesia poll as blank ballots, child marriages spark regional dissatisfaction

Photo: Prabowo Subianto with Indonesia's President-elect Joko Widodo. (Reuters)

Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians in the city of Makassar headed to local election polls to cast a blank vote rather than elect the only pair of candidates from the same coalition, according to quick count surveys.

Key points:

• Votes swung strongly towards Mr Jokowi in West Java
• More than half of Indonesian voters take into account the candidate's religious background
• Jokowi's political opponents had leveraged the feeling of isolation among conservative Muslim voters

And it's not the only city where this has happened — voters in 13 other regions also voluntarily gave up their time to cast a blank vote to protest against the political and economic elites who nominate the candidates.

"It was quite a slap in the face to the establishment … people are very much more focused on the candidate rather than the party," said Tim Evans from governance organisation Kemitraan, an expert on Asian elections.

[Voters' loyalty] to parties is quite rare here, people can switch parties quite easily — often what we see are people looking at performers."

It's good news for a populist style President like Joko "Jokowi" Widodo who is seen as an outsider to the establishment.

However, he faces a serious challenge as he attempts to deal with policies that could give conservative Muslims reason to turn against him.

This was demonstrated by his reluctance to apply a proposed presidential decree, known as "Perppu", to ban child marriages, and in his anti-leftist rhetoric when he denounced the PKI (Communist Party of Indonesia).

Election Security: What Can Governments Do Now?

By Dan Lohrman

Protecting the integrity of elections is a hot topic. From cyberattacks to fake news influencing public opinion to other forms of external manipulation that could undermine democracies, voting security has risen to become a top issue for global governments. Here’s what you need to know and potential next steps for the public and private sectors.

• What really happened with Russia in the U.S. 2016 presidential election?

• Were any votes changed as a result of hacked voter machines?

• How did social media and fake news play into influencing voter decisions on candidates?

• What must be done now to better protect upcoming elections?

These questions, and many similar inquiries, have been asked for the past 15 months, and some important new information has now surfaced to help in formulating judgments and hopefully gain closure. But regardless of pronouncements from leaders on the left, right and center of the political spectrum (who generally see this issue very differently), there is a growing sense of urgency for new actions to be taken regarding protections for future election security.

This election security topic is of paramount importance to our nation. As Juan C. Zarate, chairman and co-founder of the Financial Integrity Network and former deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism, recently wrote: “Fair elections are at the core of every democracy. Russia's actions surrounding the 2016 American election were aimed at undermining the confidence of the democratic process.”

What follows are several excellent recommendations to protect our votes. After framing the top election issues, this blog focuses on actions that governments need to take now.