Police arrest two suspected black campaigners

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SEMARANG -- The police arrested two people suspected of conducting black campaign against one of the candidate pairs contesting for the governor's election in Central Java Province. They were arrested for violating Law No. 11 of 2008 on Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) in Magelang.

"Two perpetrators were taken into custody along with a used car," Central Java Police Chief Inspector General Police Condro Kirono noted here on Wednesday.

Both of them had acted during the cooling-off period before the governor's election. According to Kirono, one perpetrator is from Klaten, while the other is a Batang citizen.

Kirono explained that the incident came to light following a public report of a short message received on cell phones. The report was followed up by checking with Telkom, which then identified the existence of the two perpetrators.

According to the police, the two perpetrators are not civil servants. Nevertheless, the police has continued its investigation into the perpetrator's car, which is believed to be a government service vehicle.

Meanwhile, in a separate location, Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) Chairman Abhan emphasized that money politics is a criminal act during elections. He called on the people to abstain from money politics intended to boost vote counts during the 2018 regional head elections.

"Money politics is a crime that hurts democracy, while society is one of the elements that makes democracy work. We hope that society would participate in the smooth implementation of the elections and not be tempted by money politics, but people should have the courage to refuse money politics," he noted on Tuesday.

Society is also expected to report indications of money politics to election supervisors. "Election supervisors must immediately follow up on the reports of practices of money politics," he said.

Ahead of the voting for regional head elections on Wednesday, he said that his side had continued to monitor areas holding elections in order to comb out and minimize incidents of violations. "Of course, we also prevent 'dawn attack.' The potential for violations is high on the polling day," he pointed out.

He also appealed to polling station supervisors to urge voters to not carry their mobile phones to the voting booths, as it could trigger money politics. "As voters can take pictures of the proof of voting, it is likely to result in postpaid money politics. They vote first, show it, and then get paid," he remarked.

Over 152 million Indonesians are expected to go to polls to elect 17 governors, 39 mayors, and 115 district heads for the 2018-2023 term during the simultaneous regional head elections (pilkada) held in 171 regions across the country on Wednesday (June 27). The government has declared the local election day as a national holiday.

Based on data of the General Elections Commission, the total number of eligible voters for the 2018 pilkada is 152,067,680, comprising some 76 million female voters and 75 million male voters. The commission estimates that the total turnout will reach more than 70 percent.

The 17 provinces to hold pilkada are East Java, Central Java, West Java, East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sumatra, Riau, Maluku, Bali, Southeast Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, North Sumatra, Papua, North Maluku, and Lampung. Indonesia had organized simultaneous pilkada peacefully in 2015 and 2017 respectively.