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Finding campaign venues becoming more difficult, Anies says
During an event on Thursday at a Banten university, Anies told the student audience that it was becoming difficult to find venues to host his campaign events, though he did not name any institutions or public spaces that had refused to do so.
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Presidential candidate Anies Baswedan, a former Jakarta governor, speaks in the first presidential debate on Dec. 12, 2023 at the General Elections Commission (KPU) in Jakarta. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
Presidential candidate Anies Baswedan has lamented that it was getting harder to find venues willing to host dialogues featuring presidential candidates, after some of his public events were canceled.
“Thank you to the rector and all staff of Bina Bangsa University who are open to dialogue in today's event. Lately, many places do not dare to host [public dialogues]. Bina Bangsa University has proved to be independent, so we can talk about anything," Anies said on Thursday during an event at the university in Serang, Banten, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
Anies did not identify which institutions had been reluctant to hold public dialogues featuring election candidates.
At Thursday’s event, Anies encouraged students to be actively involved in politics, as politics influenced government policies that affected all social issues. He also told students not to be afraid of entering politics and advised them to prioritize political ethics.
"I invite students to learn about politics correctly and responsibly," he said, as quoted by local online media BantenNews.
Anies has reportedly experienced some obstacles in holding campaign events, such as “Desak Anies” (Urge Anies), to be held on Dec. 17 in West Nusa Tenggara, but which was was unilaterally canceled. After it was again canceled by another venue, the event was finally hosted at Amanah Food Court in Mataram.
Another cancellation involved a discussion featuring Anies set for Oct. 8, before the official campaign season opened on Nov. 28. The discussion was to be hosted at Gedung Indonesia Menggugat in Bandung, which was called off by the West Java administration.
Benny Bachtiar, who heads the West Java Tourism and Culture Agency, said the permit for that particular event was revoked because organizers had installed campaign banners for Anies and his running mate Muhaimin Iskandar at the venue, which was not allowed outside the scheduled campaign period.
The organizers also did not disclose in their permit application that Anies would appear at the event. Benny said this violated the terms of the venue’s usage agreement and also contributed to the permit’s revocation.
