Please Know! 3 Village Apparatus Rules Are Prohibited From Politics

Illustration of Village Apparatus (cilacapkab.go.id)

YOGYAKARTA Did you know that all village officials are not allowed to be involved in political activities? The existence of rules for political village officials makes anyone who has a position as a village apparatus not allowed to be involved either directly or indirectly, to recommend general election participants.

It should be noted that the rules for prohibiting political activities are not only applied to village officials, but also apply to Village Heads.

In general, the Village Head is a Village Government official who has the authority, duties, and obligations to organize his village household.

In Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages, it is explained that in carrying out their duties and obligations, the Village Head is assisted by Village Apparatus. Meanwhile, Village Apparatus in Article 48 explains that village officials consist of village secretariats, regional implementers, and technical implementers.

There are several rules that state that village officials are not allowed to engage in practical political activities. Some of these rules are as follows, quoted from the South Nias Bawaslu website.

Article 29 letter (g) states that Village Heads are prohibited from being administrators of political parties. In addition, it is also stated that there is a ban on participation and/or involvement in general election campaigns and/or regional head elections.

This means that the Village Head must be completely neutral, must not be a participant in practical politics, must not be a board member of political parties or even members, and must not be a campaign team or team for election participants or regional elections.

Apart from the Village Head, Village officials should also not be involved in practical politics. This is regulated in Law no. 6 of 2014 concerning Villages article 51 letter (g) which states that village officials are prohibited from being administrators of political parties.

Not only in the Village Law, the prohibition of involvement of Village Heads and village officials in practical political activities is also regulated in Law no. 7 of 2017 concerning Elections.

In Article 280 paragraph 2 letter (h), (i), and (j) it is explained that the implementation and/or campaign teams holding election campaign activities are not allowed to involve village heads, village officials, and members of the village deliberative body (BPD).

Meanwhile, Article 282 states officials, structural officials, and regional functional officials, as well as village heads, are prohibited from making decisions and/or taking actions that benefit or harm one of the Election Contestants during the Campaign period.

In Law No.10 of 2016 concerning the Second Amendment to Law Number 1 of 2015 concerning Stipulation of Government Regulations in Lieu of Law Number 1 of 2014 concerning the Election of Governors, Regents, and Mayors into Laws, it is explained that the ban on village officials is involved in practical politics.

Article 70 paragraph (1) letter (c) states that in the campaign, candidate pairs are not allowed to involve the village head or other designations/Lurah and village officials or other designations/kelurahan devices.

Then Article 71 paragraph (1) states that state officials, regional officials, state civil servants, members of the TNI/POLRI, and Village Heads or other designations/Lurah must not make decisions and/or actions that will benefit or harm one candidate pair.

Those are some of the rules for political village officials. Visit VOI.ID to get other interesting information.