Election in New Order Era and Now, What's the Difference?

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD explained the differences in the pattern of electoral fraud in the present and the New Order era. Election fraud during the New Order was carried out by the government, while the current election is cheated by political parties, said Mahfud MD.

He said this in the National Seminar "Towards Quality Democracy: Challenges and Action Agenda" at the Gadjah Mada University Senate Hall, Yogyakarta, Saturday, August 27, 2022. "Now, the government does not cheat in elections. Now the cheating is horizontal. This political party is cheating that political party," said Mahfud who was a politician from the National Awakening Party.

The government in the New Order era, he said, cheated through the General Elections Institution (LPU) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) to win the Golkar Party. At that time the term "ABG" emerged, which stands for ABRI, Bureaucracy, and Golkar, as the three powers that control every political contestation in Indonesia.

"So, the election was fraudulent from above," he said.

Although fraud in elections still exists today, he said, the democratic system in Indonesia is better and more advanced than during the New Order. "We see that this democracy has advanced because we can choose our own political leaders. We can nominate ourselves, serve to become political leaders, which was not possible during the New Order era," he said.

The progress of the democratic system in Indonesia is also marked by the establishment of a post-reform Constitutional Court (MK) which can annul any fraudulent election results. "Now there is a Constitutional Court. If the KPU (General Election Commission) cheated, it was tried in the Constitutional Court. In the New Order era, there was no such thing. In the past, if it was cheating, it was over, it had to be accepted, there was no trial," he said.

While serving as chairman of the Constitutional Court, Mahfud had canceled as many as 72 members of the DPR who were officially announced by the KPU as the elects. "From hundreds of cases, it was proven fraudulent and then we canceled it. That never happened in the New Order era," he said.