Serang City, September 10, 2025 – The General Elections Commission (KPU), as the official election management body, reaffirmed its full commitment to ensuring clean, safe, peaceful, and high-quality elections. The adoption and capacity strengthening of open government data (OGD) is considered a strategic step to enhance public trust in KPU as the institution responsible for organizing both national and regional elections.

This was conveyed by the Chairman of the Banten Provincial KPU, Mohamad Ihsan, during the opening of a workshop titled “Strategies for Implementing Open Government Data for Quality Elections”, held in Serang City, Banten, on Wednesday (09/10/2025). The event was initiated by the Community Engagement Team of the Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Universitas Indonesia (FIA UI), in collaboration with KPU Banten. Participants included Banten Provincial KPU commissioners and secretariat staff, as well as chairpersons of regency/municipal KPUs from all eight regions in Banten.

“Collaboration with FIA UI is an important step for provincial and local KPU offices to strengthen data integrity. The public places high expectations on KPU, so transparency in data must be realized in practice,” Ihsan emphasized. “Hopefully, this will be a positive sign for us to open data as widely as possible to the public. In principle, the more open the data, the more trustworthy our performance as election organizers will be,” he concluded.

In his video remarks, Chairman of the Indonesian General Elections Commission (KPU RI) Mochamad Afifuddin stated that KPU has initiated the OGD program through the Open Data KPU RI platform. He reaffirmed KPU’s full commitment to organizing quality elections, including by providing high-quality election data. Afifuddin also expressed appreciation to the FIA UI team for their contribution in measuring the open data maturity level. “Collaboration between universities and KPU is crucial to addressing the challenges of data transparency. We believe this initiative can strengthen election data governance and restore public trust,” said Afifuddin.

Public Trust

In his presentation, Sidik Pramono from FIA UI stressed that election data openness is not only about information availability but also about public trust. KPU bears a major responsibility to ensure accessibility and transparency of election information. Referring to Article 14(c) of Law No. 7/2017 on Elections, KPU is mandated to provide all election-related information to the public. “Open government data is a vital foundation for quality elections. If the public can access, understand, and utilize the data effectively, then transparency and accountability of election organizers will be strengthened,” Sidik said.

Dr. Nidaan Khafian, a member of FIA UI’s community engagement team, explained that measuring the Open Data Government Maturity Model at KPU Banten helps identify the current level of OGD implementation. The results can then highlight areas for improvement to raise the maturity level. “This means there is still much room for progress, especially in areas such as regulation, management, security, and public participation,” Nidaan explained.

The workshop also revealed key challenges faced by regional KPUs, including voter data management, the Recapitulation Information System (Sirekap), regulations related to Satu Data Indonesia and its local-level implementation, as well as mechanisms for monitoring campaign funds. Through collaborative discussions, the FIA UI team encouraged KPU Banten to improve data governance in terms of strategy, leadership, and public accessibility.

The event also showcased best practices in local-level election data management that are expected to be replicated in other regions. With a participatory approach, the workshop discussions are envisioned as the foundation for developing a roadmap to enhance OGD capacity—ranging from strengthening internal regulations and establishing an integrated data portal, to fostering civil society participation in utilizing election data.

Through this initiative, FIA UI reaffirmed its commitment to supporting transparent, accountable, and participatory governance. “We believe that quality elections cannot be achieved without strong data transparency. This is FIA UI’s real contribution to Indonesia’s democracy,” Sidik concluded.