Bawaslu Investigate Allegations Of PPDI Inequality In The Tulungagung Pilkada

Photos of screenshots of PPDI's support video in winning the Gabah candidate pair in the Tulungagung Regional Head Election (ANTARA/HO - kamunlm)

TULUNGAGUNG - The Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) of Tulungagung Regency, East Java, is investigating the alleged neutrality of village officials who are members of the PPDI forum in the contestation of the Tulungagung regional head election.

This was conveyed by the Chairman of the Tulungagung Bawaslu, Pungki Dwi Puspito after his party received a video of PPDI support for one of the candidate pairs in the Tulungagung Pilkada.

"Yes, we are still conducting a study first," said Pungki in Tulungagung, quoted from Antara, Sunday, September 29.

For this reason, he continued, his party will hold a leadership meeting to determine what steps to take.

According to Pungki, procedurally, the findings of the alleged violation must be a complaint from the public. However, his party needs to validate the video in circulation.

"We still need validation of the truth of the video," he added.

As regulated in Village Law Number 6 of 2014, Article 51 explains several prohibitions for village officials. Article 51 letter J, for example, explains that village officials are prohibited from participating and/or being involved in general election campaigns and/or regional head elections.

If a village apparatus is found to have violated it, it can be given sanctions in the form of verbal warnings, written warnings to dismissals

Videos of support from the Indonesian Village Apparatus Association (PPDI) for the candidate pair for the Regent/Deputy Regent of Tulungagung, Gatut Sunu and Ahmad Baharudin in the 2024 Pilkada, are widely circulated in cyberspace.

In the nine-second video, the chairman of PPDI Tulungagung and several village officials can be seen saying support with Paslon Gatut Sunu and Ahmad Baharudin (Gabah).

The contents of the support in the video are "PPDI is ready to win Gabah Yes".

The chairman of PPDI Tulungagung, Suyono, confirmed the contents of the video circulating.

In the video, Suyono and other village officials meet the candidate pair Gabah.

"We were invited by the Gabah team in August 2024, before being appointed as candidate pairs for regent and deputy regent of Tulungagung," he said.

Regarding the words of support in the video, Yono admitted that the Gabah Team asked him. As a form of appreciation, his party expressed support for the Gabah candidate pair.

"I have asked the video not to be distributed. That's why I was shocked, how come it suddenly appeared during the current campaign period," he explained.