REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DENPASAR -- Chairman of the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) of the Republic of Indonesia, Abhan, invited Indonesian people to jointly prevent the practice of money politics before the voting stage for the 2018 Simultaneous Elections of Regional Heads. He explained that money politics is an extraordinary crime that can hurt the process of democracy.

"Therefore, we must prevent it together," he stated, on the sidelines of giving explanation at the Coordination and Evaluation Meeting of Preparation for the Implementation of the 2018 Simultaneous Elections of Regional Heads in Denpasar city, Bali province, on Monday.

Moreover, he noted that the national law has regulated clear sanctions for the actors and the recipients of money politics.

Therefore, he hoped for synergistic efforts and public participation to jointly campaign against money politic in order to succeed in the implementation of the simultaneous elections on June 27.

On the other hand, he explained that his party had paid attention to the potential for violations of regional head elections in social media, particularly with relation to black campaigns, hate speeches, and the politicization of ethnic, religious, racial, and intergovernmental group issues.

Bawaslu has previously cooperated with the Ministry of Communication and Informatics and a number of social media platforms in Indonesia to prevent black campaigns in social media.

With such cooperation, Bawaslu has the authority to request social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to disable accounts containing black campaigns. "If a social account violates the existing regulation, we will follow up the problem with the social media platform," he remarked.

He stated that more than 90 social media accounts have so far been confirmed with their respective platforms because they contained black campaigns.

He added that his party should carefully browse social media accounts containing elements of black campaigns in the form of hate speech and politicization of ethnic, religious, racial, and intergovernmental group issues.

He pointed out that the potential for violations and vulnerability of elections in Bali province was low compared to other regions in Indonesia. A lot of violations of the elections occurred in the provinces of Papua, Maluku, and West Kalimantan.

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