Restorative Justice Approach in the Settlement of Ballot Manipulation Crime Inindonesian Legislative Election

Abstract

Indonesia as a democratic constitutional state (democratische rechtsstaat) in running the state administration system has its own advantages, because in every policy decision refers to the aspirations of its society. Society as the main character in a democracy has an important role. The role of the society in democracy is the participation in politics. Society also has a strong role in the process of determining the executive and legislative branches both in central and local government through elections, in which the people directly involved and participate in determining the direction and policy of the state for the next five years. The comprehension of these terms implies that a general election is a representation of the people's sovereignty which must be implemented in a direct, public, free, confidential, honest, fair and integrated which is an absolute requirement for the democratic process in Indonesia.Violations in the elections is not categorized as administrative violation, but it has entered category of criminal election[1], this also includes the crime of ballot manipulation. Ballot manipulation is a fraud done to obtain the majority of votes by taking the acquisition number of others votes or the votes acquisition of political parties participating in the election by changing the official report of the vote acquisition recapitulation. The operating modeis started from voting and counting stages.Observing the settlement of election violations, especially the crime of ballot manipulation in legislative election shows that the process of the settlement (law enforcement) is complicated, because it involves several institutions, difficult evidence, limited time of the investigation, prosecution and examination in court. Based on complexities of the ballot manipulation settlement/law enforcement in the legislative election thus choosing the restorative justice election as an alternative to the settlement of the ballot manipulation crime in legislative election is appropriate, compared with settlement through the courts.Therefore, the settlement of crime in election especially about the ballot manipulation using restorative justice approach will lead to a better change namely: faster time of settling, cost efficient, faster administration and recapitulation process, then the victim can be satisfied because they will get the justice that they deserve

Keywords: Nation of Laws, Democracy, Election Violation, Restorative Justice

[1]There are various types of electoral crime acts in legislative election namely : unsubmitted the result copy of votes counting, money politic, campaign prohibition by civil employee, humiliation and provocation during campaign, remoming others right to vote, letter forgery, disturbing vote counting system, disturbing vote collection and counting process, disturbing campaign process, vote more than once, ballot manipulation, changes of total vote by committee eror and eccentra.