Many Regional Head Candidates Violate Health Protocols During Campaign, COVID-19 Task Force: Save Yourself-Voters

COVID-19 Handling Spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito

JAKARTA - The Task Force for Handling COVID-19 regrets and is concerned about the presence of a regional head candidate pair holding an Pilkada campaign by causing crowds and complying with health protocols.

Campaigns that cause crowds in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic must be the last and a lesson for candidate pairs, to continue to adhere to health protocols.

"Let's save yourself and your voters," said Wiku Adisasmito, spokesman for the COVID-19 Task Force in an online press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube account, Tuesday, September 29.

He said the candidates for regional head should be a good example for voters by always prioritizing health protocols by not crowding them.

Wiku appreciates a number of regions and political parties that have created a special task force to enforce health protocols in the middle of the 2020 Pilkada. It is hoped that the Task Force can encourage and streamline the implementation of health protocols to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 during the campaign.

In addition, he said there were a number of regions that could be used as references in the implementation of the 2020 Pilkada related to orderliness in implementing health protocols. One of the areas that Wiku mentioned was Ngada Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. According to him, in this region all elements are involved to strictly maintain the health protocol for preventing virus transmission.

There are various ways this has been done and one of them is to pledge the integrity pact to the implementation of health protocols during the elections. "We ask other regions that are carrying out regional elections to emulate and carry out activities like this in order to keep the implementation of the elections safe from the threat of COVID-19 transmission," he said.

"We also encourage election organizers, namely the KPU and also supervisors, namely Bawaslu to monitor and take action against candidate pairs who ignore and violate health protocols in their campaign activities, in accordance with the new PKPU Number 13 of 2020," he added.

If there are still stubborn regional head candidates, Wiku also asks the public to participate actively in reporting these actions to Bawaslu.

"Let us work hand in hand to achieve a safe Pilkada for COVID-19," he said.

Previously, member of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) Mochammad Afifuddin said there were eight health protocol violations in the implementation of the first day of the 2020 simultaneous regional election campaign on Saturday, September 26.

"The violations occurred in West Tanjung Jabung, Sungai Penuh, Bandung, Purbalingga, Mojokerto, Dompu, Kaimana and Medan," Afif told reporters, Monday, September 28.

According to Afif, the breach of protocol in Tanjung Jabung Barat and Sungai was full of campaign teams committed by the candidate pairs. Then, there was the declaration of the pair of candidates by mass gathering in Purbalingga.

Then, in Bandung and Dompu, there were pairs of candidates who held face-to-face meetings beyond the specified capacity, namely over 50 people.

Furthermore, in Kaimana there was socialization of candidate pairs who did not apply health protocols and in Medan there were pairs of candidates attending volunteer activities. "The sanctions, we do a written warning to violators of the health protocol," said Afif.