Geruduk Residents Of Bawaslu Urge To Investigate Cases Of BNPB Assistance Being Misappropriated For The Surabaya Election Campaign

SURABAYA - Community NGOs concerned about welfare and transparency (Mapekat) rallied in front of the Surabaya Bawaslu office.

The crowd demanded that the case of alleged misappropriation of National Disaster Management Assistance (BNPB) which was allegedly used for the campaign of candidate pair Machfud Arifin and Mujiaman in the Surabaya Regional Head Election to be investigated thoroughly.

About 20 members of this NGO gave speeches and carried banners reading "Completely investigate the corruption of national disaster relief assistance by PLT Chairman of the Democrats in Surabaya" and several other writings urging the Surabaya Bawaslu to immediately take action against the alleged misuse of social assistance.

"That this is an abuse of office in the form of a criminal act of corruption, because this is a national disaster relief aid," said member of the NGO Mapekat Setyo Winarto, Saturday, December 5.

Previously, Bawaslu Surabaya had received reports of alleged misuse of BNPB social assistance for the Machfud-Mujiaman campaign which was allegedly carried out by the Acting Chairman of the Surabaya Democratic Party, Lucy Kurniasari. Protesters consider Bawaslu to be slow in handling the case.

"We consider that the Bawaslu of the City of Surabaya, especially in handling this case, is very slow, tends to be less professional," added Winarto.

Apart from pressing for a thorough investigation of this case, the protesters also demanded that the Surabaya Bawaslu have the courage to state that the alleged misappropriation of BNPB's social assistance is a criminal act.

"That the Surabaya City Bawaslu has the courage to declare that this election violation crime was committed by the Democrat Party, in particular the Acting Chairman of the Surabaya Democrats Lucy Kurniasari. Or Bawaslu should have written a letter to the Surabaya Police Chief that this is purely a crime of corruption," said Winarto. .

After giving speeches, the demonstrators were met by the Coordinator of the Bawaslu Secretariat for the City of Surabaya, Indra Fajar, who would convey the demands of the masses to their leaders.

"In principle, we accept the report concerned as a complaint, so that later we will submit it to the leadership," said Indra.

When asked about the development of reports on the alleged misappropriation of BNPB's social assistance for a certain candidate pair campaign, Indra said that the one who could answer it was the leadership, but until now it is still in the tracing process.

"So there are still stages of seeking information," he concluded.