Candidates Still Prioritize Face-to-Face Campaigns With The Potential Of Transmitting COVID-19

Illustrations (Photo: Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Member of the Indonesian Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), Mochammad Afifuddin, said that physical campaigns in the form of limited meetings or face-to-face meetings are still the main choice for regional head candidate pairs.

In fact, in holding the 2020 simultaneous regional elections during the COVID-19 pandemic, candidate pairs are expected to campaign more often virtually, both online and via social media.

"Data in the last 3 days shows that the majority of candidate pairs and campaign teams are still using the campaign in the form of direct meetings that require health protocols," Afif told reporters, Thursday, October 1.

In implementing the pilkada campaign on September 28, 29 and 30, 2020, Bawaslu noted that there were 582 election campaign activities in 187 districts / cities.

In detail, there were 250 limited / face-to-face meeting activities (43 percent), 128 campaign material distributions (22 percent), 99 props (17 percent), 64 campaigns on social media (11 percent), and 41 online campaigns (7 percent).

"In fact, the campaign options for this limited face-to-face meeting also have the potential for the spread of COVID-19," said Afif.

For information, the General Election Commission issued KPU Regulation (PKPU) Number 13 of 2020 as an amendment to PKPU Number 6 of 2020 regarding the implementation of regional elections during a pandemic.

In Article 58 of this PKPU, political parties, pairs of candidates and campaign teams can only carry out limited campaigns provided they are inside the building and limit the number of participants to a maximum of 50 people.

Meanwhile Article 63 states that other activities that do not violate campaign prohibitions and the provisions of laws and regulations are carried out in the form of campaigns through social media and online media.

Then, there is a confirmation of the prohibition on music concert campaigns and the like in the addition of Article 88C in PKPU Number 13 of 2020.

"Political parties, coalitions of political parties, candidate pairs, campaign teams are prohibited from carrying out campaigns for rallies, performing arts, harvesting, music concerts, leisure walks, casual bicycles, competitions, bazaars, blood donations, and political party birthdays. "wrote the PKPU.

The lightest sanction that can be imposed for violators of health protocols in PKPU 13/2020 is a written warning from Bawaslu.

In addition, there are other sanctions in the form of terminating and forcibly dissolving the campaign at the place where the violation occurred if it does not immediately disband within one hour of being warned.

The heaviest sanction is the prohibition of conducting campaign methods that are violated for 3 days based on the recommendation of the provincial Bawaslu or district / city Bawaslu.