REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia Public Institute's (IPI's) senior researcher Karyono Wibowo believes that the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla (Jokowi-JK) pair were poised to win even without having to commit a fraud in last year's presidential election.

"According to the surveys conducted by several credible survey institutes, the electability of Jokowi-JK was higher, although we have to admit that the electability of Prabowo-Hatta had also shown an increase," Wibowo stated in a short text message here, Wednesday (8/4).

With such high electability, the Jokowi-JK success team would have to think twice about committing a high-risk fraud, he noted.

Moreover, the Constitutional Court (MK) had issued a verdict that there was no structured, systematic, and massive fraud in the 2014 presidential election as accused by the Jokowi-JK pair's rival, he pointed out.

Therefore, he did not believe that the Jokowi-JK success team had committed a fraud by using information technology as revealed by Akbar Faisal.

He, however, believed that the statement made by Akbar Faisal on an alleged attempt to manipulate the General Election Commission's (KPU's) data, has indeed created ripples in the national political environment.

"Although the target is Luhut Panjaitan, who is not the chief of the presidential staff, the information can tarnish the image of Jokowi-JK," he remarked.

Karyono Wibowo stated that Faisal's claim about Luhut Panjaitan's presentation on alleged manipulation of the KPU's data by using information technology during the presidential election process in 2014, could affect President Jokowi and Vice President Kalla.

Moreover, the tensions during the head-to-head presidential election, which created rifts in the country, have not yet allayed.

"The political heat is still going on. Now, we hear a claim by Akbar that has shocked the public. Unfortunately, Akbar is the former deputy chairman of the Jokowi-JK transitional team," Wibowo noted.

Earlier, a KPU commissioner admitted that attempts had been made to hack into the KPU's information technology system network during the vote recapitulation process of the presidential election last year.

"Once, there were attempts to 'penetrate' our network by using a blocking system, with many of them, including from China," Hadar Nafis Gumay, the KPU commissioner, noted here, Tuesday.

The Commission, however, managed to get its system up and running in less than 24 hours and resumed normal operations.

With regard to a rumor circulating about certain hackers managing to extract large amounts of KPU's data during the presidential elections, he clarified that the Commission conducted a vote recapitulation manually, not online, and so, the results were not affected.

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