The agency found a total of 1,315 violations involving an undisclosed number of candidates or supporters during in-person campaign events from Sept. 26 to Nov. 4. Violations included ignoring social distancing rules and the gathering of more than 50 attendees in one campaign venue -- all were in violation of a General Elections Commission (KPU) regulation.

“The data shows that candidates still preferred in-person campaign events. And throughout the past 40 days of campaigning, several of them, along with their supporters, seemed to forget that they’re also in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak, hence the violations,” Bawaslu head Abhan said.

Abhan said all candidates should follow the KPU regulation during all election stages, including the campaign period that will last until Dec. 5.

The regulation bans candidates from holding rallies and crowd-pulling events, such as music concerts, bazaars and art performances. Candidates must instead use online platforms to reach voters, and they may host face-to-face rallies indoors only when online campaigns are impossible. The events must be held under strict health protocols with no more than 50 attendees.

Candidates and members of their supporting political parties and campaign teams who violate the regulation will receive warnings from the KPU, a penalty that critics say is too lenient. Bawaslu may shut down campaign activities in violation of social distancing rules. Bawaslu can report repeated offenders to the KPU and recommend that it issue warnings.

 

During the first 40 days of the campaign season, Bawaslu has shut down 141 campaign events in violation of health protocols.

Abhan said his agency had only forwarded the data on violations to the KPU, but without filing a formal report or recommending a KPU warning. He said Bawaslu did not feel an urgency to do so and instead preferred to shut down campaign activities in violation of health rules since most of them often eventually complied with protocols upon orders from Bawaslu.

Read also: Lenient sanctions allow candidates to repeatedly ignore health protocols

Abhan said Bawaslu also found that not all candidates or supporters intentionally violated health rules, with some crowds starting to build up rather unanticipated.

He cited a case in Wakatobi regency, Southeast Sulawesi, where a candidate hosted an indoor event that allowed only 50 attendees. But not long after the event started, more than 50 supporters came and gathered right outside of the building -- something the campaign organizer said it never expected. The crowd cleared on its down upon orders from Bawaslu.

“From that case, we can see that our monitoring has become difficult since we have to anticipate unexpected violations. We only hope candidates and their campaign teams will comply with the protocols during the remaining campaigning period,” Abhan said.

Bawaslu will update the data on Nov. 15.

Compliance with health protocols is nonnegotiable for preventing campaign events from becoming new sources of coronavirus transmission and candidates should be more aware of this, said epidemiologist Riris Andono Ahmad of Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University.

He cited what happened in Sabah state in Malaysia, which reported a surge of new COVID-19 cases after a state legislative election on Sept. 26, with most candidates having used conventional rallies to reach out voters. Riris said it was because mobility had increased during in-person rallies, which in turn had accelerated COVID-19 transmissions.

Read also: Positivity rate remains high amid drop in testing, recorded cases

He warned that Sabah’s case could also occur in Indonesia, a country where the positivity rate remains high while the rate of COVID-19 testing dropped in early November.

A recent survey conducted by Indikator Politik Indonesia has shown that most respondents want regional leader candidates who have violated health protocols to be disqualified from the December elections.

Some political parties reiterated on Thursday their commitment to comply with health protocols, saying they were pushing their candidates to prioritize virtual forms of campaigning.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) campaign team head Bambang Wuryanto, for instance, said the party had urged its candidates to comply with health protocols when holding in-person rallies, but the party would not impose sanctions against violators.

The Democratic Party has also obliged its candidates to comply with health rules, with the party’s campaign team secretary, Kamhar Lakuman, saying it “will impose sanctions against those who violate it”.

Both Bambang and Kamhar said their parties allowed candidates to host indoor face-to-face campaign events because it was the most effective way for them to build a connection with voters.