The Rise Of Identity Politics, Yapen Islands, Sarmi Regency, Papua Enters The 2024 Election Prone Area Index

Chairman of Bawaslu Papuan Province Hardin Halidin (ANTARA/Qadri Pratiwi)

PAPUA - The Papua Province General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) said the Yapen Islands and Sarmi Regency were included in the top 20 national election vulnerability index (Pemilu) in terms of identity politics. Chairman of the Papuan Province Bawaslu Hardin Halidin said the Yapen Islands also included social media users in spreading hoaxes or fake news. "The Yapen Islands are included in the top 20 levels of politicization vulnerabilities for SARA, because there are issues of religious differences, rejection of candidates or candidates based on ethnicity, religion and race," he said in Jayapura, Antara, Thursday, November 9. According to Hardin, apart from the two regencies, there are also several other districts that are included in the records of the Papua Bawaslu in the 2024 election vulnerability index, namely Sarmi, Yapen Islands, Jayapura Regency and City, " “ Preventing this is now holding meetings with religious leaders, FKUB, students, traditional leaders and several other stakeholders so that things that can interfere with the general election can be overcome,” he said. He explained that apart from the relevant stakeholders, his party also collaborated with the Communication and Information Office and the Papua Police Cyber to anticipate SARA issues so as not to spread. "In addition to Diskominfo and Cyber Polda, we are working with Meta as social media managers so that fake news can be immediately deleted," he said. He added that despite collaborating with various parties, Bawaslu also appealed to the public to become smart social media users.

"We ask for the support of the community to jointly oversee and participate in conveying information or reporting any violations of the 2024 General Election, so that it can be immediately addressed by related parties," he said again.