Elections of Regional Heads and Voter Sovereignty

The simultaneous elections of regional heads (Pemilukada) will be conducted in 2018. About 171 regions will hold elections for the heads of provinces, regencies, and cities on 27 June 2018.

Twenty two youths have been selected to participate in the 2017 Anti-Corruption Course (SAKTI), organized by Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) last August. Unlike in 2013 and 2015, this year’s SAKTI has been greatly supported by the public through public donations and corporate support.

Support from the public, corporations and donor agencies have contributed to the success of 2017 SAKTI. There were almost 200 prospective participants, coming from all over Indonesia. This shows the great enthusiasm of the youth to get involved in the activity.

The Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Arief Hidayat allegedly lobbied a number of politicians to extend his term of office, which will expire in the next 6 months. In addition to violating ethics, Arief's attitude can undermine MK's dignity.

With the rapidly rising number of social media users, ICW must immediately adapt to new campaign patterns. The year 2016 became a learning moment for ICW, to test the effectiveness and strategies for the use of social media in spreading the values ​​of anti-corruption in the community.

Despite having been named as a suspect in the e-KTP mega corruption case, and detained by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Setya Novanto does not budge from his position as the Speaker of the House and Chairman of the Golkar Party.

Through a letter, on 21 November, Setya requested the leadership of the Golkar Party and the leadership of the House of Representatives not to discuss his termination as Chairman of Golkar, or as Speaker of the House, and to provide him with the opportunity to prove his innocence.

The Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Agus Rahardjo, said on Friday (24/11) that KPK investigators are working hard to resolve the corruption case of the e-KTP project involving Setya Novanto, Chairman of the House of Representatives, as suspect. This endeavor is done so that Setya's files are immediately sent to the Corruption Court.

The Commission for the Eradication of Corruption (KPK) finally detained Chairman of the House of Representatives, Setya Novanto (SN) in KPK’s detention center at midnight on 19 November 2017. This arrest was finally made although SN’s arrest was postponed due to his being treated in Jakarta’s Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital due to a traffic accident.

The Supreme Court is now on the spotlight, again. The national selection of judges in 2017 has been smeared with the issue of extortion of the selection participants. The amount is astounding, between IDR 600 to 650 million, which has to be paid by the participants to the official suspected as a court employee, in order to pass the selection. The delay in the announcement of the selection, from 31 October to 3 November 2017, was also suspected to be related to the machinations to pass the participants who have paid the amount.

After again naming Setya Novanto as suspect in the case of corruption of e-KTP procurement, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is encouraged to move quickly. The Commission is expected to submit the case to the court and have Novanto detained.

The internal dispute in the KPK goes on. Following the clash between KPK Director of Investigation Aris Budiman and Senior Investigator Novel Baswedan, ending with Aris being reported to the police, KPK’s leadership continue to have differing opinions on the sanction to be given to Aris on his indisciplinary action, having appeared in front of the Parliament’s Inquiry Committee. Finally, several KPK investigators from the police have been found to delete, damage or eliminate evidence during the handling of a case involving a businessman.