Bawaslu Admits It Had No Access to Verify Gibran's Diploma, Constitutional Court Flags Election Oversight Gap

The Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) has asserted that it never received access to verify Gibran Rakabuming Raka's educational qualification as a vice-presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election. The admission was made by Bawaslu Chairman Rahmat Bagja before the panel of Constitutional Court justices in the hearing of Case Number 01/PHPU.PRES-XXIV/2026 at the Constitutional Court Building in Jakarta on Wednesday (23/9/2026) evening.

The statement emerged when Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra pressed Rahmat on Bawaslu's role in the verification process. Saldi compared it with Bawaslu's usual practice of accompanying the KPU when examining the completeness of candidate requirements. Rahmat answered bluntly: his office received no information whatsoever, so it was impossible for it to be present during the check with the education office.

More pointedly, Rahmat revealed that the access problem was not new. He said the restrictions began during the verification stage for legislative candidates at a hotel in Jakarta. At that time, Bawaslu was allowed into the room but barred from bringing mobile phones or cameras. The protest submitted to the then-KPU Chairman, Hasyim Asy'ari, according to Rahmat, yielded only promises that were not carried out in practice.

"Because we had no information at all, we did not come, Your Honor," Rahmat Bagja said in the hearing, describing Bawaslu's position as seemingly excluded from the core verification process.

Rahmat also said Bawaslu was given only about 15 minutes when it entered the verification room. As a result, in 2023 the agency reported the KPU to the Election Organizer Ethics Council (DKPP). However, the complaint coincided with the nomination and registration stages, so Bawaslu still did not obtain adequate access. "We did not know, and how could we," he said.

On the other side, KPU Chairman Mochammad Afifuddin answered Saldi's question with a different reason. He stated that the KPU did not conduct direct verification with the education office because it had received a certificate and no reports had come in. In other words, two versions intersect: the KPU felt the existing documents were sufficient, while Bawaslu felt it was never given room to check their veracity.

For the public, this hearing is not merely a clash of arguments between institutions. It highlights how the architecture of election oversight works when one body holds verification authority and another is tasked with supervising it. If oversight access can be restricted on merely administrative grounds, then the control function weakens precisely at the most crucial point: the validation of candidate documents that determines who may run in the contest.

The impact reaches far beyond a single case. Every election, including the regional elections and the 2029 election, rests on the assumption that verification is transparent and auditable. When Bawaslu admits it was not included, the question arises whether similar findings could recur with other candidates in the future. Investor and market confidence in Indonesia's political stability also depends on how credibly the legal and electoral processes are carried out.

The Constitutional Court is now in a decisive position: whether Bawaslu's admission will serve as the basis for strengthening the oversight mechanism, or simply pass without structural improvement. What is clear is that this hearing leaves one open question: if even the supervisory body can have its access blocked, how strong is the guarantee that candidate requirements are genuinely verified?