The concurrent elections, which will elect 270 regional heads, are scheduled for Dec. 9, despite an earlier plan to delay them because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The poll body previously urged candidates to stage online campaigns, consisting of social media campaigns and teleconferencing, instead of hosting campaign rallies, to avoid creating crowds that could potentially become sources of virus transmission.

KPU commissioner I Dewa Kade Wiarsa Raka Sandi said the commission was in the process of arranging the guidelines, which will be laid out in an upcoming KPU regulation (PKPU). The campaign period is slated to run for 71 days beginning on Sept. 26.

Dewa said the sticking points currently under discussion included the types of social media posts and content that could be classified as campaign materials.

The KPU is also working to determine a list of situations in which candidates will be obliged to hold teleconferencing events instead of campaign rallies.

Under a KPU regulation issued on July 6, the commission stills allow candidates to host regular campaign rallies in locations in low- to zero-risk areas. The events must be held outdoors and attendance must not exceed half of the location’s maximum capacity.

However, Dewa said that despite these limitations, there was still a severe risk of virus transmission at campaign rallies.

“Let’s say a candidate hosts an open air campaign rally in a location that has a maximum capacity of 20,000 people, then 10,000 people are permitted to attend. But 10,000 people is a huge number, so should we allow them to carry on with the rally? Or should we divert some of the attendees to teleconferencing platforms?” Dewa said.

“Regulating online campaigns is something new for us, so it will definitely take some time to arrange,” he added.

The government and the House of Representatives insisted in May that the concurrent elections to elect nine governors, 224 regents and 37 mayors should be held on Dec. 9, despite the COVID-19 outbreak.

The draft PKPU regulation on technical guidelines for online campaign will be the second regulation issued on the year-end polls after the July 6 PKPU provision on the necessary health protocols for all stages of the elections.

Dewa said the poll body had made progress in setting rules for online campaigns in the draft regulation. For example, Dewa said, the draft stipulated that candidates would be prohibited from promoting their candidacies via their personal social media accounts. Instead, promotion should be conducted via new social media accounts dedicated solely to campaigning.

Candidates will be allowed to start campaigning on Sept. 26, but they will have to immediately delete posts and content related to their campaigns on their social media accounts once the campaign period is over on Dec. 5.

“Other than that [the aforementioned planned provisions], we still need to complete the draft of the regulation,” he said.

“We have received a lot of input from the House and information and IT experts [in drafting the regulation], so we hope we can issue the regulation as soon as possible.”

The head of the East Java chapter of the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), Mohammad Amin, said he hoped the upcoming regulation would grant his agency access to all social media and teleconferencing accounts used by candidates during their campaigns.

He said the move would make it easier for Bawaslu to monitor the online space for campaign violations stipulated in the 2016 Regional Election Law, such as smear campaigns and threats of violence against certain political parties or groups of people.

Titi Anggraini of election watchdog the Association of Elections and Democracy (Perludem) suggested that the KPU should not only provide technical guidelines for online campaigns, but also establish a code of ethics that candidates and their campaign teams must adhere to.

Candidates and their campaign teams should also post the code of ethics on their social media accounts, Titi argued, so their supporters and potential voters could also comply with the code when endorsing the candidates.

She said doing so could help prevent the public from spreading smear campaigns, false information and slander against certain candidates through social media platforms during the campaign period.

“Online campaigns are necessary when holding elections amid the outbreak. But the KPU has to ensure the candidates only use online platforms to promote their visions and missions, and urge their supporters to engage in fair elections,” Titi said.

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