KIPP was founded on March 15, 1996 by about fifty prominent lawyers, intellectuals, NGO leaders, journalists and members of SMID, the student activist organization. Inspired by NAMFREL, the election monitoring body that helped bring down Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines in 1986 and Pollwatch, the Thai organization set up after the May 1992 military crackdown, it was conceived initially as more of a tool for rallying democratic groups than as a technical body that could actually make a difference on election day. (After all, in Indonesia the undemocratic nature of the elections is deeply rooted in the political system, and what happens at the polls, while important, is only a tiny part of the problem.) In the beginning, KIPP was intended to be a loose coalition of concerned groups but gradually, it began to develop into a formal non-governmental organization.
At the time, Soesilo Sudarman, coordinating minister for politics and security affairs, argued that the creation of KIPP was unnecessary because there already was a government monitoring body, Panitia Pengawas Pelaksanaan Pemilu or Panwaslak (Committee for Supervising the Implementation of the Elections) but it could be accepted as long as it did not disturb the activities of the state body. KIPP met with strong disapproval from the armed forces’ Commander-in-Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung and Minister of Information Harmoko, who is also chairman of Golkar, the ruling party. It was welcomed by the chief of social political affairs for the armed forces, Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid, who said he saw KIPP as “a positive intention from members of the public who want to make the election smooth and better.”
In 2014 Presidential Elections, there was an increase of NGOs and community involvement in election monitoring. In South Sulawesi, FIK Ornop deployed 2,256 volunteers recruited by 14 member organizations to conduct monitoring in the city of Makassar and several other districts. In Aceh, the Aceh NGO Forum together with 5 other CSOs formed the Aceh Election Network to conduct monitoring in several districts and routinely report on findings. Moreover, some CSOs utilized information technology to crowdsource reports, such as JPPR launced the website, pantaupemilu.org, to conduct volunteer training and which received hundreds of public reports on the results of monitoring. Prominent counter-corruption organization ICW invited the public to report on vote buying through its site, politikuang.net, while Perludem working together with AJI Jakarta sourced online monitor report through matamassa.org.
Source
Indonesia: Election Monitoring and Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, May 1996, https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2013/06/14/indonesia_0596.pdf.
Amin Shah bin Iskandar, The Impact of Globalization on Socio-Political Processes and Institutions: The Search for Regional Alternatives?, Monitoring Elections: Resistance against Authoritarian Regimes: The case of the National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) in the Philippines and the Komite Independen Pemantau Pemilu (KIPP) or Independent Election Monitoring Committee in Indonesia, The Work of the 2009/2010 API Fellows,http://www.api-fellowships.org/body/international_ws_proceedings/09/P3-Amin.pdf.
Lili Hasanuddin, After a Lively Election, What’s Next for Indonesia’s Mobilized Civil Society?, Election in Indonesia, The Asia Foundation, 2014, https://asiafoundation.org/resources/pdfs/IndonesiaElections.pdf.
Resources :
PDF : 2014 Presidential Elections in Indonesia Monitoring Results from Aceh, Jakarta, Central Java, South Kalimantan and South Sulawesi (JPPR)
PDF : Monitoring Accessibility in Elections for Voters with Disabilities in Indonesia (AGENDA: 2013)
PDF : National Report: Observation Results on Electoral Access for People with Disabilities in Five Local Election in Indonesia (AGENDA: 2012)
PDF : Final Report of the Carter Center Limited Observation Mission 2009, Legislative Elections in Indonesia
PDF : Final Report: Governor and Regent/Mayor Elections 2007 (EU)
PDF : Statement of Parliamenry Conclusions and Findings (EU: 2006/2007)
PDF : Preliminary Statement, Provincial and District Elections (EU: 2006) (Achual)
PDF : Preliminary Statement, Provincial and District Elections (EU: 2006) (Indonesian)
PDF : The Carter Center 2004 Indonesia Election Report
PDF : Account of the mission to observe the second round of the presidential elections in Indonesia 20 September 2004 (European Parliament)
PDF : Final Report: EU Election Observation Mission to Indonesia (2004)
PDF : Final report: Australian Parliamentary Observer Delegation to Indonesia, Parliamentary Elections (2004)
PDF : Joint Statement of NDI and the Carter Center International Election Observation Delegation to Legislative Elections, June 9, 1999
PDF : Joint Statement of NDI and the Carter Center International Election Observation Delegation to Legislative Elections, June 20, 1999
PDF : Post-Election Statement No. 4: Post-Election Developments in Indonesia, The Formation of the DPR and the MPR (NDI and Carter Center: 1999)