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VOL. 8, ISSUE 1 (2026)
Public trust under pressure: Electoral oversight and the Bawaslu legitimacy crisis amid the alleged diploma forgery controversy
Authors
Abdillah Mustari, Uli Nuha, Ani Auli Ilmi
Abstract
This study examines the shifting dynamics of
public trust in the national election supervisory body in Indonesia in the
context of a major political controversy involving alleged falsification of an
academic credential by the incumbent president. The research aims to understand
how political crises reshape institutional legitimacy and to identify the
principal drivers influencing public perceptions of electoral oversight. A
mixed-methods design integrates a longitudinal public opinion survey,
computational social media analysis, and in-depth interviews with institutional
stakeholders and electoral experts. The findings indicate a significant decline
in public trust following the controversy, with the sharpest reduction
occurring in the dimension of institutional integrity. Media exposure and
political identity strongly shaped patterns of opinion formation, reinforcing
polarized narratives and amplifying public skepticism. The analysis
demonstrates that perceived independence of the supervisory body remains the
most decisive factor in sustaining political trust, confirming the centrality
of integrity-based evaluation in democratic accountability mechanisms. The
study concludes that institutional resilience during political crises depends
heavily on transparent communication, rapid response strategies, and the
capacity to counter misinformation. These findings have broad implications for
the study of electoral governance, public trust formation, and crisis
communication within emerging democracies.
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Pages:178-184
How to cite this article:
Abdillah Mustari, Uli Nuha, Ani Auli Ilmi "Public trust under pressure: Electoral oversight and the Bawaslu legitimacy crisis amid the alleged diploma forgery controversy ". International Journal of Law, Policy and Social Review, Vol 8, Issue 1, 2026, Pages 178-184
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