Bawaslu Records 195 Cases Of Village Heads Not Neutral During The Regional Head Election Campaign

JAKARTA - The Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) recorded 195 cases of alleged violations of village head neutrality during the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Election campaign.

Bawaslu chairman Rahmat Bagja said 195 cases were spread across 25 provinces that had been carried out since the beginning of the campaign period until today.

"As of October 28, 2024, there were 195 cases spread across 25 provinces, with details, 59 findings, 136 reports, 130 registered, 55 not registered, 10 cases have not been registered," said Bagja as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, October 28.

He mentioned that out of a total of 130 cases registered, 12 cases were criminal acts of election violations. Then, as many as 97 cases were violations of other laws and regulations and 42 other cases were declared not violations.

"Of the 130 registered cases, it is a violation of the neutrality of the village head, so that the local-level electoral democracy agenda which is currently underway can be carried out in a competitive, honest, fair and democratic manner," he said.

Bagja explained that in Article 70 Paragraph 1 of the Pilkada Law there are rules that in the campaign, candidate pairs are prohibited from involving village heads or village heads and village officials as well as village officials.

"It is said that members of the village head and village head or other names of village heads are prohibited from making decisions and or actions that benefit or harm one of the candidate pairs," added Bagja.

Therefore, he appealed to village heads and other village officials to maintain neutrality during the 2024 Pilkada campaign period.

He hopes that the appeal can be understood and carried out by all regional head candidates and also the regional head candidate campaign team not to involve the village head.

"So, the local-level electoral democracy agenda which is currently underway can be carried out competitively, honestly, fairly and democratically," he said.