Optimizing The Role of the General Election Commission in Realizing Democratic Elections in Indonesia

Abstract

The mechanism for transferring people's sovereignty is carried out through general elections to elect leaders and representatives of the people who will be mandated to carry out state and government affairs in accordance with the provisions contained in the legislation. One of the interesting developments from the point of view of the Indonesian state administration began when Indonesia experienced a transitional period of general elections (elections) which are one of the main pillars of democracy. In Indonesia, the existence of an election management body has existed since the 1955 general election until now. In every course of political history, Indonesia has several different institutional models of election management from time to time.  The General Election Commission in Indonesia it is called Komisi Pemilihan Umum (KPU) is an institution that carries out the function of organizing elections in Indonesia. In addition to the KPU, there are institutions that also play an important role in the implementation of elections and are closely related to the existence of the KPU, namely survey institutions that carry out quick count processes. The survey institutions in a number of developing countries, especially those that are actively building democracy, are also not a little doubted by their moral honesty, at least being sued with a critical attitude such as the existence of a poll on the existence of a political survey institution, which has resulted in an attitude of uncertainty about the performance survey agency. This condition makes people less confident in the survey results which are considered no longer independent. It is proven that every time an election is held, a number of survey institutions seem to want to lead public opinion towards certain contestants. This is certainly very unfortunate considering that the survey results are one of the important instruments in democracy.