Bawaslu Asks Political Parties And Public Officials Not To Make Noise And Ruin The Stages Of The Election, Sindir Zulkifli Hasan?

Lolly Suhenty/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - The General Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) reminds everyone, including administrators or members of political parties and state officials to refrain from asking the public to vote for certain candidates outside the campaign stage.

This refers to the incident of the Minister of Trade, Zulkifli Hasan, who asked Lampung residents to choose their daughters and distribute free cooking oil to them.

"This is to avoid unnecessary noise during the election stage," said Bawaslu Member Lolly Suhenty, in Jakarta, Thursday, July 21.

He said that restraint was important even though there were no definitive participants in the 2024 General Election, because it would result in the inability to follow up on alleged election violations.

Bawaslu, he said, has the duty and authority to prevent violations. Prevention is done by urging everyone to comply with the stages of the election.

"So that everyone obeys the stages of the election based on the schedule of stages that have been set in PKPU Number 3 of 2022 concerning the Stages and Schedule for the Implementation of the 2024 Election," he said again.

Based on the PKPU, according to him, the current election stage is still in the process of drafting regulations and preparing for the registration of political parties as candidates for election.

Meanwhile, the registration stage for the political parties participating in the general election begins on August 1 to 14, 2024. Then, the stage for determining election participants is on December 14, 2022 and the campaign stage is on November 28, 2023 until February 10, 2024.

He said election participants could only campaign during the 75-day period according to the campaign schedule and stages.

Lolly said that although no candidate has been appointed by the KPU as participants in the 2024 election, the act of asking the public to vote for someone while carrying out state duties is inappropriate and unethical.

"State officials are prohibited from abusing their authority and using the facilities of their positions for partisan interests," said Lolly.

He appealed on the contrary, community leaders, state officials, politicians, even everyone should set an example of complying with regulations and keeping conditions safe and comfortable for everyone.