Bawaslu: 243 Candidates For Regional Heads Violate The COVID-19 Protocol When Registering

Bawaslu / bawaslu.go.id Building

JAKARTA - The Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) said there were 243 pairs of regional head candidates who violated the health protocol for preventing COVID-19. Violations occur when the procession of prospective candidates to the crowd during registration at the KPU.

"On the first day, we recorded 141 chaplones who violated health protocols and on the second day there were 102 violators. So, a total of 243 Bawaslu members, Fritz Edward Siregar, said at the KPU office, Central Jakarta, Monday, September 7.

In fact, continued Fritz, the KPU has reminded political parties that carry regional head candidates to adhere to health protocols in order to reduce the number of COVID-19 transmission.

"There are 678 chaplones and almost half of them, 243 chaplones, did not comply with the health protocol when registering to the KPU office. So, this is our biggest homework, how can we run the 2020 Pilkada while still implementing health protocols," said Fritz.

According to Fritz, supervision of compliance with health protocols is not only the burden of the KPU and Bawaslu. The TNI, Polri, Satpol PP, Ministry of Home Affairs, and the COVID-19 Handling Task Force must also be firm in monitoring.

In addition to violating KPU regulations regarding the implementation of the 2020 Pilkada during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fritz considers the procession carried out by the candidate pairs also has the potential to violate Law Number 6 of 2020 concerning Pilkada.

Therefore, if a Bawaslu study finds violations related to PKPU and Law 6/2020, Bawaslu will recommend it to other parties such as the police for further handling.

"For this reason, the Provincial / Municipal Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) will forward findings or reports that are not under their authority to the competent authority in accordance with Article 28 (1) e and Article 33 e of Law 6/2020," said Fritz.