Thanks to this new website, Indonesians can now dig through election candidates’ CVs

2014 will a big year for Indonesia as national elections will be held for both the legislative branch and the president. So it’s only natural that we turn our attention to what’s happening in the political scene, and especially how it relates to technology. One of the new things that the general elections commission (KPU) is doing is running a page that lists the fixed candidates (DCT) running for the office. It is hosted at dct.kpu.go.id.

One of the biggest problems in Indonesian elections is how clueless people really are about the candidates. When people vote, they mostly vote for the political parties the candidates represent. There’s still no culture whereby the people get to know more about the candidates because mainstream media doesn’t often scrutinize the legislative candidates in detail.

The new DCT page by KPU is a simple site in which users can find the candidates’ CVs, all arranged according to the political parties the candidates represent. Users can also look up information based on the district the candidates represent.

While the only important information on the site is the candidates’ CVs, it still marks a good step towards transparency. At the same time I still don’t think the CVs will be enough to help users make a decision as to which candidate is best, especially since there are some reports of elected representatives allegedly forging their certificates.

Nonetheless, the site has done its first objective well, which is to inform users about who the candidates are. I hope that KPU will continue to enrich the content with more information like the candidates’ performance reports (if they have held office positions before), or aggregate news from various media sources about each candidate.

A trend seems to be emerging in which the Indonesian government is looking to utilize the power of technology. In anticipation of next year’s election, KPU is setting up an online voter database to help citizens check their voting eligibility more easily.

(Editing by Josh Horwitz)