The General Elections Commission (KPU) and experts have said that candidates should be held criminally liable under the proposed Perppu if they violate health protocols at any stage of the electoral process.

“[Campaign events that attract crowds] should be forbidden with heavy punishments through the Perppu,” KPU commissioner Viryan Azis said on Saturday. “One of the possibilities is to increase the prohibition of campaigns that attract crowds, including during balloting and vote counting.”

The elections will decide 270 regional leaders, consisting of nine governors, 224 regents and 37 mayors. Candidates are currently permitted to hold public campaign events from Sept. 26 to Dec. 5, before voting day on Dec. 9. But epidemiologists and election experts warn that such events may become catalysts for COVID-19 contagion, particularly after prospective candidates were found to have violated health protocols earlier this month.

The KPU has recently been in the spotlight for revising a KPU regulation without making significant changes to measures to prevent virus transmission during elections. The new regulation allows candidates to host physical campaign events that could attract crowds, including concerts, art performances, festivals, competitions, bazaars, blood donation drives and commemorations of party anniversaries.

Candidates may host face-to-face rallies only in open spaces and with no more than 100 participants. The regulation also requires candidates, campaign teams and election organizers to comply with health protocols, such as wearing masks, and prohibits mass gatherings at all stages of the elections. Campaigns found in violation of the regulation will receive warnings from the KPU, which critics say are lenient.

Following public backlash, KPU commissioner Dewa Raka Sandi said the KPU had no choice but to allow public events, in compliance with the Regional Elections Law.

The commission, according to Viryan, had initially wanted to impose stricter punishments than those that prevailed, but the KPU had refrained from doing so because the law did not provide for sanctions against people who put public health at risk during elections.

“Therefore, we advise the government to enforce strict sanctions by issuing the Perppu so that candidates will not violate health protocols while campaigning,” Viryan said.

The Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) found that 243 prospective candidates had ignored health protocols by bringing large entourages to register their candidacies at local KPU offices from Sept. 4 to Sept. 6.

Bawaslu recommended that the KPU issue warnings to the candidates and campaign teams for their violations of the KPU regulation, as the regulation dictated.

Bawaslu was also considering reporting candidates who neglected health protocols to the police to deter cavalier behavior, but they were unable to because such violations were not criminal offenses.

“It was hard for us to bring violators to the police because the KPU regulation merely states that candidates that neglect health protocols will only get reprimanded by the KPU,” Bawaslu commissioner Ratna Dewi Pettalolo said. “It would be easier if we had the Perppu.”

Adi Suryadi Culla, a political expert at Hasanuddin University in South Sulawesi, said that if the Perppu criminalized health violations, it would deter candidates and the public from hosting or taking part in campaign events that attracted crowds.

The government has not signaled any intent to issue such a Perppu.

Home Minister Tito Karnavian said on Sunday evening that the government was now considering issuing either a Perppu specifically regulating sanctions against those who violate health protocols during regional elections or an all-inclusive Perppu covering everyday public compliance with health protocols.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and election activists and experts have called on the government and the House of Representatives to postpone the elections because of the public health risk and possible low voter turnout, particularly as 45 of the 270 regions that will host elections have been declared high-risk areas.

Three KPU commissioners have contracted COVID-19, and the KPU discovered earlier that 46 out of the 734 prospective candidates had tested positive for the illness.

The postponement of an election during a health crisis is permissible under the Regional Elections Law. However, policymakers are resolute about holding the elections in December, saying that they have no compelling reason to postpone them.

--  Fiqih Prawira Adjie contributed to this story.