National Election Crisis Management

Case on Website of National Tabulation

The First Round of National Election   Conducted in 5 July 2005, followed by the results calculation   A promise by KPU that everybody can look at a result on a real-time basis based on the online system   The source of the data is from national tabulation system (Tabulasi National) located in Borobudur Hotel   Access channel is through a website with an address of http://www.kpu.go.id   It is a proof and control of governance:

When the promise fails

Issues Faced by the Publics

  Can not be done from until 5 July 2005 midnight   Several stakeholders are trying to look at the results, especially: press, publics, NGOs, parties (constituents), government, organisations, and citizens   Reported:

– Website can not be accessed –  “Hang” after several seconds

  People are getting “angry”, “confuse”, “doubt”, and “prejudice”   Perceptions from publics: “there is a ‘h k k ’ ti it th t’ i ”

Bad Public Exposure

  6 July 2005 – Kompas reported on “Something wrong

with IT Tabulation System that should be audited”

– Rakyat Merdeka stated “KPU hides some truth about the election results”

– Detik.com focused on “KPU works together with big parties to manipulate the results”

– Suara Pembaruan mentioned about “Do not trust the IT KPU system”

è Crisis arrised on the 12 oclock ft

Crisis Management Idea

  Quick review and analysis the system to look for root cause (GATHERING THE FACT)   KPU does not have the resources è they should find the expert (ALLIANCE WITH THIRD PARTY)   Based on the diagnosis, a quick Crisis Management Response Team should be formed to develop strategy (CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN)   A series of program should be done so th t l h 7 J l

Principle on Issues

  Communication objective: buying time will not be any good since it deals with seconds à the best communication strategy is “seing is believing”   That “seeing is believing” should be there at 6am oclock in the morning on the 7 July 2005   From 6 July 2005 afternoon to that targeted time, all real data collected

Diagnosis Result

  Nothing wrong with the website or the system, the problem is on the “connection bandwidth” – Too small capacity for connection – Million of people were trying to access – Causing serious “congestion

traffic” (system stop)   Causes:

– KPU does not have enough money to rent the broadband (is it due to a bad planning?)

– KPU never underwent “stress test” to the

Problems Magnitude

  National Election is a national program, all eyes were focusing on KPU outputs   Solving the problem cannot be done by KPU alone, they should work together with so many parties   An extraordinary approach should be done in a “crash program” manner   A team should be led by two generals: – Formal General: highest authority to

 

Two Generals

  Basuki Suhardiman as Internal Leader – Internal

communication – Handle the

media – Prepare formal

letters

  Heru Nugroho as External Leader – Look after the

solution – Lobby all

parties that have components

– Pragmatic

Two Generals

Basuki Suhardi

man

Heru Nugroho

The Strategy

equipping and tooling with appropriate matters

“solve the issues” “communicate the issues”

Media

The Results

  Solved the issue at 1am o’clock on 7 July 2005 (earlier than expected)   Publics could start browsing as they want   Since they were more interested in the election results, they forgot the crisis happened   The team gathered to learn from the lesson

Thank You