KPU Only Provides 1 Microphone In The Podium On The Last 3 Debates Of The Presidential Election

The KPU held a meeting to evaluate the vice presidential debate with the campaign team of each pair of candidates (paslon) at the KPU office, Jakarta, Wednesday, December 27. One of the evaluations discussed was the use of three microphones which were considered excessive and made the room for debate participants irregular.

In the last three debates for the 2024 presidential election, the KPU and the candidate pair campaign team agreed that there was only one microphone on the podium.

KPU Commissioner August Mellaz said the use of the podium in the second debate served as an anchor to limit the space for participants to move during the debate. With the presence of the podium, it is hoped that the debaters will not make additional movements while on stage.

"The assumption is that people can have more free movement space, so if the podium is limited to only on the podium. At this meeting, it was agreed that the use of the podium would still be carried out and the position as an anchor and microphone was only one," August said after the meeting.

One microphone will later be installed on the podium, so the debaters are expected not to leave the podium when speaking. However, August admitted that he would still have further discussions to anticipate if the microphone did not work.

"It will be anticipated later," August said.

The results of the evaluation meeting with each candidate pair campaign team will be brought to an internal KPU meeting for further discussion. The next evaluation meeting will be held with the television media that organizes the debate.

"This is part of the evaluation in order to improve and improve from the next debate," August said.

The next debate, namely the third round, which will be participated by three presidential candidates, will be held on January 7th.