REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- House of Representatives Speaker Bambang Soesatyo has urged the police to investigate the proliferation of fake news on seven containers from China with 10 million marked ballots. He said the case aimed at destabilizing Indonesia.

"Continued efforts are being made to threaten the stability of Indonesia's national security and public order. In the first week of January 2019, the endeavors have begun by spreading fake news on the seven containers from China," he cautioned here on Friday.

The spread of this fake news cannot be tolerated, Soesatyo said. He believed it is intended to disrupt the presidential election process, adding that the national police should probe into the case and send perpetrators to court.

According to Soesatyo, fake news on the marked ballots might also be intended to build a public perception that there were parties intending to commit electoral frauds for winning the parliamentary and presidential elections prior to April 17, 2019.

"Hence, as the House speaker, I urge law enforcers to take stern actions against those spreading the hoaxes, and perpetrators of this brutal act," he stated.

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-Ma'ruf Amin pair, had arrived at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok Port. In response to this rumor, which was then proven to be fake, the authorized persons from the General Election Commission (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.

KPU Chairman Arief Budiman noted those spreading the hoaxes were criminals intending to disrupt and delegitimize the convening of this year's parliamentary and presidential elections, so they should be arrested.

The Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno pair's National Campaign Team has supported the police to probe into the proliferation of fake news on seven containers from China, with millions of marked ballots for the 2019 Presidential Election.

"We urge the police to conduct a thorough investigation into all cases of fake news that have created public confusion," spokesman of the Prabowo-Sandiaga pair's National Campaign Team Ahmad Riza Patria remarked on Thursday.

Patria stated that since the start, he found it implausible to accept the news of millions of ballots being cast prior to the convening of the upcoming presidential election.

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