Bawaslu Emphasizes The Importance Of Anticipating COVID-19 Protocol Violations When Determining Candidates

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) Abhan predicts that there will be potential pairs of candidates (bapaslon) who again violate health protocols during the determination stage as participants in the 2020 Pilkada.

"We see the potential for health protocol violations to happen again if we don't anticipate together, in the near term on September 23 when the candidate pairs are decided," Abhan said during a joint hearing with the DPR, Thursday, September 10.

Abhan assessed, when the candidate pairs were determined, there would usually be an atmosphere of euphoria, both for chaplain supporters who met the requirements as pilkada participants, and those who did not meet the requirements.

"Perhaps, the dissatisfied side with the KPU decision which is declared ineligible will lead to anarchist actions, and so on," said Abhan.

According to him, Bawaslu cannot immediately take firm action against violations of health protocols in the 2020 Pilkada stages, such as criminal sanctions. In the Pilkada Law, Bawaslu can only give administrative sanctions in the form of warnings, both oral and written, for candidates who violate the health protocol.

"This is indeed a limitation of Bawaslu's authority, because the criminal sanctions are regulated outside the election law," said Abhan.

"So, what we are doing is that we continue with the alleged criminal offenses outside the criminal election law and forward it to the police to be processed according to the provisions," he continued.

For information, Bawaslu has data on 243 prospective pairs of candidates who violated health protocols when registering on September 4 to 6. The violation took the form of mass gathering or parading.