JAYAPURA, PAPUA – Simultaneous elections in 2024 will be held in all regions of Papua, but according to the Indonesian National Army Operations Staff (Sops TNI), the Papua region is included in the high vulnerability category.
Based on the 2024 Election Vulnerability Index (IKP) data, areas whose security is considered to be vulnerable are in Central Papua Province and Mountainous Papua Province, while other areas are considered to have moderate security status, “there are still acts of armed violence committed by armed groups in several places in the Papua region, such as in Puncak Regency, Yakuhimo Regency, Paniai Regency, Bintang Mountains Regency, Nduga Regency, Intan Jaya Regency, and Maybrat Regency,” said Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Marshal TNI (Purn.) Hadi Tjahjanto.
Based on Intelligence data, the level of vulnerability in the implementation of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections tends to be medium-high, greater than the vulnerability of the Legislative and Presidential Elections which tend to be small-medium because this is caused by various things, including:
- Partisanship of the organizers to one of the candidate pairs,
- Organizers do not comply with regulations,
- The Regional Head Couple becomes a competitor during the 2024 Regional Head Election,
- The results of the vote count are not in accordance with the real conditions at the polling stations,
- Alignment of security forces to one of the candidate pairs,
- Money politics.
Coordinating Hadi, the TNI and Polri are committed to being ready to assist the distribution of Pilkada logistics. Because, the geographical conditions of the Papua region are quite heavy and demographically the people are scattered on the islands, “The TNI and Polri are ready to help for the smooth running of the simultaneous elections to support the distribution of logistics with existing defense equipment,” said Hadi.
The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs again reminded all TNI and Polri soldiers to continue to synergize in maintaining security and peace in Papua, especially in the implementation of simultaneous elections, “I remind you once again, the synergy of the TNI and Polri must be maintained and hopefully this difficult task can be carried out well,” said Hadi.
The former TNI Commander also said that the Government continues to campaign for peaceful elections, this is so that people want to participate in the implementation of the Simultaneous Regional Elections, “because when the Peaceful Election narrative is very minimal, there can be political, legal, security, economic and prosperous instability,” said Coordinating Minister Hadi.
Meanwhile, Pangdam XVIII/Kasuari, Major General Haryanto emphasized that all TNI and Polri soldiers assigned to the Papua region work together to realize peace, especially in the context of the 2024 simultaneous Regional Head Elections. “We are committed to upholding integrity, so that safe, orderly and smooth elections can be realized,” Haryanto said.
