The Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) has vowed to monitor social assistance (Bansos) distribution during simultaneous regional elections (Pilkada), which are scheduled for Nov. 27 this year.

Bawaslu head Rahmat Bagja said the poll watchdog would ensure that no state resources are used to support certain regional head candidates.

“The most important thing is there should be no social assistance used by government [officials] to support certain candidates,” he told reporters on Sunday.

Allegations of misuse of the state apparatus and resources had been at the center of a presidential election dispute case at the Constitutional Court.

Unsuccessful presidential candidates Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo had that alleged an abuse of power by state officials resulted in the ability of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to run as the running mate of Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, who later won by a landslide in the Feb. 14 presidential election.

The court has rejected Anies' petition, saying that it had presented weak evidence and the court did not find the alleged abuse of power had resulted in Prabowo's victory. 

Read also: Court rejects first of two petitions seeking to overturn Prabowo's victory

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