Debate Of Final Presidential Candidate, KPU Adds 6 Segment Time To 4 Minutes

KPU Chairman Hasyim Asy'ari (central) with KPU Members August Mellaz (left) and Mochammad Afifuddin (right) ANTARA/Rio Feisal

JAKARTA - The General Elections Commission (KPU) added the sixth segment time to the fifth debate or the last debate between presidential candidates to 4 minutes from the original 2 minutes.

KPU member August Mellaz said the decision was made after receiving proposals from the success team of each presidential/cawapres candidate pair in the last evaluation meeting and coordination meeting.

"We have managed it, and we have arranged it, and then specifically in the sixth segment or closing it, the time allocation for closing statements from each presidential candidate will be fulfilled as much as 4 minutes each candidate pair," said Mellaz as reported by ANTARA, Friday, February 2.

Mellaz said the time change did not change the overall debate time, so the total execution time remained 120 minutes.

"From the time side, what we have conjectured is from the moderator side. So it doesn't reduce the whole debate," Mellaz explained.

Meanwhile, Mellaz said the addition of time in the presidential/cawapres debate was nothing new.

"Actually, the addition of time is not a new thing. In the implementation of the 2019 election debate, there was actually also one. It was also part of the existing experiences," he said.

The fifth debate featured three presidential candidates, namely Anies Baswedan (candidate number 1), Prabowo Subianto (candidate number 2), and Ganjar Pranowo (candidate number 3) with the theme education, health, employment, culture, information technology, as well as social welfare and inclusion.