Bawaslu Asks Candidates In Pilkada To Simultaneously Hold Back Before Entering Campaign Period

Bawaslu (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) has asked candidates in the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections to refrain from campaigning before their term is set.

"Regulation has determined that there is a time for regional election participants to campaign," said member of the Indonesian General Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) Puadi quoting Antara.

According to Puadi, technically there is no prohibition for prospective pairs of candidates participating in the regional elections to take advantage of the free day (car free day/CFD) to meet with the community.

However, to ensure the same principles between participants who will take part in the five-year democratic party, they should refrain from taking advantage of this opportunity.

This is because the 2024 Pilkada campaign period has a schedule and prospective pairs can use the existing schedule to invite citizens who have the right to vote when voting on 27 November.

"To ensure the principle of equal treatment in contesting regional elections, prospective candidates should be able to refrain from taking actions such as campaigns," he said.

He added that the current rules if the candidate pair for the 2024 Pilkada had been determined as a candidate pair by the KPU, all the rules would bind to the election participants.

"This is in accordance with the PKPU which explains that meetings are considered a campaign if the candidate pair has been appointed as a candidate pair by the KPU," he said.

Currently, the 2024 Simultaneous Pilkada is in the stage of checking the administrative requirements for candidate pairs and after all, they are declared complete, then a plenary meeting will be held to determine the candidate for regional head.

The 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections were attended by 545 regions throughout Indonesia consisting of 37 provinces, 415 regencies, and 93 cities. This regional election is a grand party in the five-year political contestation in Indonesia.