REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Ferdinand Hutahaean, a member of the Advocacy and Law Directorate of the National Winning Agency (BPN) of presidential candidate pair number 02, denied that the man named Bagus Bawana Putra (BBP) who was suspected of being a creator of fake news on marked ballots as a 'frontman' or leader of volunteer for Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno. However, he did not deny that the suspect might be one of supporters.

"We don't find his name registered as the chairman or active management of Prabowo-Sandi volunteers, but there is a possibility that he is a volunteer," Ferdinand said at National Secretariat of Prabowo-Sandiaga team, Menteng, Jakarta, Wednesday (Jan 9).

Ferdinand asserted that elites are different with volunteers. Bagus might have been a volunteer since he attended some of Prabowo-Sandi events, he remarked.

"But he his not a frontman or volunteer elite," he reiterated.

Meanwhile, Chairperson of National Secretary of Prabowo-Sandi, Muhammad Taufik explained that every volunteer who provides support to Prabowo-Sandi is recorded in the National Secretary and BPN. Those volunteers are registered in a decree.

Taufik believed declaration made by BBP to support Prabowo as presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election was carried out before the presidential and vice presidential candidacy were declared. "It's strange, the declaration was made before the nomination of the president and vice president," Taufik said after a discussion at the National Secretary office, in Central Jakarta, on Wednesday (Jan 9).

According to Taufik, there is no benefit for Prabowo-Sandi team to spread false news.

The police have arrested BBP after examining voice recordings which went viral in social media.

"Finally we were able to detect, the voice came from a suspect with the initials BBP," said Director of Cyber Crime of National Police, Brigadier General Rachmad Wibowo at the National Police Headquarters Building, in Jakarta, on Wednesday.

On Wednesday (Jan 2), a rumor, circulated through social media platforms, claimed that seven containers from China, with millions of ballots that had been cast in favor of the Joko Widodo-KH Ma'ruf Amin pair, had arrived at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok Port. In response to this rumor, which was later proven to be fake, authorized persons from the KPU and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) directly checked the reported containers on Wednesday evening.

The KPU commissioners confirmed that the rumor was untrue, and it was categorized as fake news. They also urged the police's cyber crime unit personnel to track and arrest those who had spread the fake news.

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