Voting Rights of Covid-19 Patients

Organizing the 2020 Pilkada during Indonesia’s Covid-19 outbreak has indeed had many impacts.

Kompas/Wawan H Prabowo

Officers provide ballots to citizens registered as voters in the 2020 Pilkada voting simulation activity in Serpong, South Tangerang, on Saturday (12/9/2020).

Amid the surge in Covid-19 cases and various public criticisms, the government, the House of Representatives and the General Elections Commission (KPU) are still determined to proceed with the 2020 simultaneous regional elections (Pilkada) in 270 regions.

The government has presented many reasons as to why it is deliberately proceeding with its plans to hold the 2020 Pilkada, despite the widespread perception that its Covid-19 mitigation efforts have not been optimal. These reasons range from an urgency to elect and install (regional) leaders in a timely manner, the regional elections as a medium to control Covid-19 and the elections as an occasion to help the economy to recover, as well as references to other countries that have held elections successfully during the pandemic.