State institutions have joined forces to create a joint law enforcement center to swiftly tackle violations of the law that may potentially occur during this December'€™s regional elections.

On Thursday, the National Police, Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) and the Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) officially established the joint team as stipulated by Article 152 of the current Regional Elections Law.

'€œWhy was this [law enforcement center] formed? It was based on the need to resolve Regional Elections Law violations quickly and according to the law. The handling of the investigations will be different [from the usual] because reports and investigations can only be done in a limited period of time,'€ National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said, referring to the 14-day time limit within which regional election cases must be resolved after being reported.

He explained that close cooperation between the three institutions was crucial because past experience indicated that regional elections were rife with violations and social conflict.

'€œReports will first be filed to Bawaslu, who will hand them over to the law enforcement center, which will then be followed up by investigators. I also hope that prosecutors will closely monitor [the reported cases from the beginning] so that the cases will not go back-and-forth. Our hope is that the investigations will be brief,'€ Badrodin said of the planned process.

The police chief also promised the neutrality of his officers, and urged the public to report any officer who assisted particular candidates.

Bawaslu head Muhammad denied criticisms that the law enforcement center had been established far too late as there were only two months left before the elections. Instead, he said that Bawaslu had been prioritizing preventative measures, as stipulated by the law.

Muhammad also denied the law enforcement center would be misused to find faults in candidates.

'€œIt does not mean that we will wait at the corner to search for mistakes. We just want to make sure that election participants are treated exactly the same. Those who cheat or violate the law must be pursued,'€ he said, adding that the monitoring agency had received several threats even before the campaign season had started.

Meanwhile, head of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), Judhariksawan, said that it had agreed to cooperate with Bawaslu and the General Elections Commission (KPU) to watch out for possible broadcasting violations during the campaign season.

'€œBased on our experiences in the 2014 general elections, broadcasting institutions are extremely strategic [for campaigners]. This year'€™s regional elections will be directly coordinated by the KPU, which is different from last year when the campaign teams could organize it themselves,'€ he said.

Last month, KPU, Bawaslu and KPI agreed that candidates running in the regional elections may only advertise using designated media platforms from No. 23 to Dec. 5. The candidates will be given a fixed timetable on when their advertisements can air on radio and television stations so that all candidates receive equal air time.

Muhammad said the KPI'€™s cooperation was greatly appreciated as candidates might be given an unfair advantage if the broadcasts were not controlled. '€œEveryone'€™s wallets are different; some are thick and some are thin. If it'€™s not managed through a campaign corridor, there will definitely be a monopolization and politicizing, which would be unbalanced,'€ he said.
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