10 Days Election Campaign, There Are 237 Health Protocol Violations

Photo: Doc Bawaslu

JAKARTA - The campaign period has been running since last September 26. The Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) noted that there were 9,189 physical campaign activities in the form of limited meetings or face-to-face meetings.

In its monitoring of thousands of campaigns that had been running for 10 days until 6 October, Bawaslu found 237 suspected violations of health protocols in 59 districts / cities.

"For the violation, 48 activities were disbanded. In addition, Bawaslu also sent 70 written warning letters," Bawaslu member Mochammad Afifuddin told reporters, Wednesday, August 7.

Apart from violations of health protocols, Bawaslu also found several other alleged violations, namely 17 cases of suspected violations on social media, 8 cases of suspected money politics, and 9 cases of suspected misuse of government facilities.

The alleged violations on social media include ASN and / or village heads participating in campaigning, campaigns on social media accounts that are not registered with the KPU, spreading hoax content, and paid content (sponsorship).

"Regarding the alleged violation, Bawaslu has followed up according to the procedures for the form of violation," said Afif.

"Among them are submitting warning letters, dissolving campaign activities involving the police, and Satpol PP and conveying to the police if there are suspicions of criminal acts," he continued.

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, candidate pairs and campaign teams prioritize limited campaign methods 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 the campaign prohibition and the provisions of laws and regulations are carried out in the form of a campaign 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.