News

International IDEA's Senior Programme Manager for Asia & the Pacific, Adhy Aman, in a webinar with an Indonesian audience organized by the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) on Monday, 6 April 2020, suggested the need for alternative methods of elections to be considered during the COVID-19 crisis, in addition to considering alternative dates for the postponed or suspended elections.

Adhy gave the example of Bavarian local elections in southern Germany where voter turnout actually increased in the first and second rounds last March due to the availability of postal voting which voters could resort to as an alternative voting method that fulfils physical distancing needs. The key message is however to not jump into employing brand new methods, but rather think of using existing methods, like what Bavaria did. If new methods are to be employed, then rigorous studies and tests would still need to be undergone, albeit in a shorter than usual timeframe.

The webinar video is in Bahasa Indoensian language published on the Antara News website.

This video includes the full webinar.