Needdem Asks For Proactive Bawaslu To Monitor Potential Abuse Of State Equipment

JAKARTA - Executive Director of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Khairunnisa Nur Agustyati, asked the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) to be more active in monitoring the potential for misuse of state tools.

This was conveyed by Khairunnisa in response to the potential misuse of state tools in the participation of President Joko Widodo's eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming in the 2024 presidential election contestation.

In my opinion, Bawaslu must be more active in supervising this matter, because the potential is not only during the campaign period. But also before the campaign period like today," Khairunnisa told reporters, Friday, November 30.

According to him, although the new campaign period will begin on November 28, the potential for abuse of authority will already occur before the official campaign period begins.

"So far, Bawaslu has always argued that the election participants have not been determined and have not yet entered the campaign period so that action cannot be taken," he said.

In fact, continued Khairunnisa, it is clearly written in the duties and authorities of Bawaslu, one of which is to prevent and take action against violations and disputes in the election process. Until the decision on sanctions in the event of a violation.

"Seharusnya dengan segala kewenangannya saat ini, seharusnya Bawaslu tidak hanya menunggu saat masa kampanye saja. Sebelum masa kampanye seharusnya sudah harus dilakukan juga untuk memastikan proses pemilu berjalan secara fair," ungkap Khairunnisa.

Therefore, Khairunnisa hopes that Bawaslu can maximize its professionality and independence ahead of the 2024 General Election.

"I think the public has reminded Bawaslu a lot about its current duties and functions. Because at this time our Bawaslu has transformed into an institution that has great authority," concluded Khairunnisa.

Previously, Deputy Chairperson of the National Winning Team (TPN) Ganjar-Mahfud, Ammarsjah Purba, suspected that there was interference by the apparatus or the use of state equipment to monitor political activities participating in the 2024 General Election.

For example, the removal of certain billboards for presidential and vice-presidential candidates in Bali. However, Ammarsjah assessed that the authorities did not do the same with other presidential and vice-presidential billboards.

Bakal capres Ganjar Pranowo juga meminta semua pihak tidak menggunakan alat negara untuk melakukan perbuatan tidak adilah dalam penyelenggaraan pemilihan presiden (Pilpres) 2024.

This was conveyed by Ganjar in response to the potential abuse of authority after many government officials joined the Prabowo Subianto- Gibran Rakabuming Raka National Campaign Team (TKN).

"Hopefully everyone will remember and not use state tools for something unfair because it will injure democracy," said Ganjar at the CSIS Office, Jakarta, Tuesday, November 7.