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City to tear down campaign paraphernalia
Governor Joko âJokowiâ Widodo has said that the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) will take down all campaign paraphernalia in public spaces as it was against election regulations
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Governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has said that the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) will take down all campaign paraphernalia in public spaces as it was against election regulations.
'Starting this afternoon, Satpol PP and the local Election Supervisory Committee [Bawaslu] office will rid all public places such as schools, houses of worship and parks of party paraphernalia and legislative candidates' illegal campaign material such as billboards and banners,' he said at a meeting with the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) and House of Representatives Commission II on home affairs at City Hall on Monday.
According to Regulation No. 15/2013 issued by the General Elections Commission (KPU), only candidates vying for seats on the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) are allowed to advertise on billboards, while only legislative candidates running for House and City Council seats are allowed to place campaign banners in particular places with permission from the relevant authorities.
The Bawaslu has repeatedly complained about big campaign banners and billboards being placed without permission and without paying advertising tax to the city administration.
Jokowi also said he would issue a gubernatorial instruction to maintain civil servants' neutrality and against city assets such as cars and sound systems being used in any campaign activities.
'Civil servants have to maintain neutrality and are barred from giving support to any political parties contesting the legislative election,' he said, adding that the matter was stipulated in Government Regulation No. 53/2010 on civil servant discipline.
Jokowi made the statement in response to a statement by Commission II deputy chairman Taufiq Effendi, who asked that tough measures be taken against those installing banners, posters and billboards in restricted areas, including city parks and along strategic roads.
Taufiq also said that no measures had been taken against parties that promoted their presidential hopefuls on billboards and banners in restricted areas.
Taufiq, who is a Democratic Party member, also demanded that the city administration take stern action against civil servants campaigning for any party or presidential nominee.
'Top officials may be neutral, but the city administration should prohibit any low official, such as a subdistrict or district head in the field, from giving political support to particular parties and legislative candidates,' he said.
During the meeting, several Commission II members asked the KPUD and the city administration to resolve the issue of dubious voters.
KPUD chairman Sumarno said his office was tackling the issue of 13,182 dubious voters.
'We have updated the final voter list [DPT] six times. We have delisted dubious voters from the 71,520 previously detected to leave 13,182,' he said, adding that 7.1 million eligible voters remained on the final voter list.
Sumarno said many voters had registered in the city but were considered problematic as their identity (ID) cards had been issued outside the city.
'Most of the dubious voters are serving time in several prisons in the city,' he said, adding that the KPUD had discussed the dubious voters with the Civil Registration Agency.
Civil Registration Agency head Purba Hutapea said his agency was coordinating with the Home Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry to resolve the issue of problematic eligible voters.
'Many names do not met the standards, like many of them use 'bin' [commonly used by Muslims to signify lineage] or aliases. Many also did not list accurate addresses,' Purba said.
He suggested that the KPUD compile a special voter list comprising the names of dubious voters who would be allowed to cast their vote after presenting their ID cards. 'It would be impossible for inmates, for example, to vote twice as they are imprisoned,' he said.
More than 300 legislative candidates from 12 political parties will contest 21 seats at the House and more than 1,200 others will contest 106 seats at the City Council in the legislative elections scheduled for April 9. Thirty-five independent candidates have registered to contest four seats at the DPD.
