Panwaslu wants derogatory banners taken down

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The Jakarta branch of the Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu Jakarta) has sent letters to the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta), the gubernatorial hopefuls and the Public Order Agency, urging them to remove banners containing derogatory messages related to ethnicity, religion and race toward specific candidates.

“There are some banners that weren’t made by the candidates’ campaign teams. We state in the letters that this is a violation,” Panwaslu Jakarta chief Ramdansyah said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.

“We are asking them to take down the banners tonight. The process may take two to three days.”

The media have reported increasing amounts of negative campaigning, some of which involved religious figures, against gubernatorial candidates ahead of the September runoff.