Value Not An Election Violation, Bawaslu Do Not Continue Report On The Spread Of Tabloid Anies Baswedan

Indonesian Bawaslu Youtube Screenshot

JAKARTA - The Indonesian General Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) has decided not to follow up on reports from the Civil Society Care for Democracy which reported the spread of tabloids related to Anies Baswedan in a number of Malang City mosques. Based on the results of the initial study, RI Bawaslu Member Puadi stated that the distribution of the tabloid did not meet elements of election violations as regulated in Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections. "There has been no alleged violation of the election because there has been no election participants set by the KPU in the 2024 election," Puadi said at a press conference at the Indonesian Bawaslu office, Thursday, September 29. Given that there has not been a date for determining the election participants and the campaign period, Puadi assessed that the formal and material requirements in reports submitted by the Civil Society Care for Democracy were not fulfilled. "It is factual that the complainant cannot fulfill it. So, even though the reporter is given the opportunity to fulfill these requirements. This is impossible for the reporter to fulfill it," said Puadi. On Tuesday, September 27, a group on behalf of the Civil Society for Democracy Cares reported Anies and his supporters to Bawaslu regarding the distribution of a tabloid with the title "Why Must Anies Baswedan" at mosques to the Malang City market, East Java. The National Civil Coordinator for Democracy Cares, Miartiko Gea, said that reporting to Anies was suspected to be an alleged violation of the campaign, namely the 2024 election campaign off schedule. "Today we are reporting to the Indonesian Bawaslu regarding the alleged covert campaign carried out by Anies, anies Baswedan supporters in Malang City, Malang city. There was a distribution of tabloids in places of worship," said Miartiko at the Indonesian Bawaslu office, Central Jakarta. This report was submitted to Bawaslu with evidence of a tabloid in the form of a physical and digital copy. Then, there are also witnesses who are claimed to be aware of the spread of the tabloid. Although he did not include the articles reported on Anies, Miartiko said this could still be considered a campaign violation. This is because the 2024 election stage has begun. "We see that this is one of the points of violation because the election stage is about to start. So, we from Kornas PD, the National Civil Coordinator for Democracy Cares, consider this to be categorized as an election violation. Then we report to the Indonesian Bawaslu to start processing," he added.