The General Elections Commission (KPU) has ensured that supporters of each presidential candidate pair will be allowed to attend the fifth election debate despite complaints from the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) that the “noisy audience” rendered the debate less conducive.

The televised debate, slated for Sunday, will bring together presidential candidates Anies Baswedan, Prabowo Subianto and Ganjar Pranowo for the third and last time before the Feb. 14 election. They will discuss topics related to social welfare, health, culture, education, information technology and human resources.

Bawaslu head Rahmat Bagja previously revealed his agency’s evaluation regarding the way the fourth debate on Jan. 21 that featured only vice presidential candidates was hosted, especially on the presence of supporters from each camp, which Bawaslu described as “too noisy” as they “disrupted” the flow of the debate.

"We have seen several times [in previous debates] that supporters made comments when presidential or vice presidential candidates [were engaged] in conversation [despite] the moderators and KPU warning them not to do so,” Rahmat said recently.

Since the first debate in mid-December of last year, the KPU has several times issued rules for those participating in the debates to maintain orderliness, including for supporters not to chant campaign jingles and slogans or intimidate the candidates in any way during the debates.

Read also: KPU to allow debate moderators clear up candidates’ questions

What the public wanted, Rahmat said, was a debate that focused on ideas and programs offered by each candidate, not a shouting match among supporters.

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