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KPU to allow campaigns in govt buildings, schools
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A girl uses her mobile phone in front of an Indonesian election campaign mural ahead of the polls at Banda Aceh, Aceh province, on March 17, 2019. Like the 2019 election, the young population will again become the majority of voters in the 2024 presidential race. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
To:p>The General Elections Commission (KPU) is currently revising its regulation on campaigning for the 2024 presidential and legislative elections in order to allow election participants to hold rallies in government buildings and schools under certain criteria.
Observers, however, have called on the poll body to proceed with caution, fearing that a poorly drafted revision to the KPU regulation could result in the coming campaign season being marred with a lack of accountability and abuse of power.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, KPU commissioner Idham Holik said the KPU was in the midst of revising its regulation in accordance with a recent Constitutional Court ruling that allowed campaigns to be held at government facilities and in educational institutions.
“As we know, the court ruling is final and binding. So, the KPU will make the necessary revisions to the regulation,” Idham said on Friday, as quoted by Kompas.com.
The regulation in question, which was released by the KPU last month, explicitly banned election participants and political parties from holding campaigns using state facilities, as well as on school grounds and places of worship – in line with the 2017 General Elections Law. However, the appendix of the law states that exceptions could be made for campaigning at these places under the condition that the campaigners were invited by the establishment, and that the campaigners did not use any campaign attributes.
It was because of this legal loophole that many campaigners managed to stage rallies at state facilities or in schools in past elections, although some violations had resulted in imprisonment, such as the case of a legislative candidate from the Gerindra Party, who was sentenced to three months in prison for campaigning in a state middle school in Jakarta in 2018.
