TIME.CO, Jakarta – President of the Electoral Supervisory Board o BawasluRahmat Bagja appealed to all parties not to carry out practical political activities in places of worship. He also reminded not to carry out political activities that lead to support or electoral campaigns or Elections 2024.
“Bawaslu also recalled that campaigning in places of worship is prohibited by law number 7 of 2017 on elections. Campaign activities in places of worship, according to the electoral law, may be subject to criminal penalties,” Rahmat said in his statement on Monday, December 12, 2022.
This appeal was aired in response to a report from a civilian with the initials MT on Dec. 7, 2022. Rahmat said that MT related the alleged incident of signing a petition in support of the presidency with the reported alias AB. Anies Baswedan.
“The incident took place on 2 December 2022 at the Baiturrahman mosque in Banda Aceh city,” he said.
Rahmat said that Bawaslu examined the MT report to check the formal and material requirements according to Bawaslu regulation number 7 of 2022. Initially, the audit results showed that the MT report was found to be non-compliant with the material requirements.
The reason is that the reported incidents do not yet contain allegations of election violations, considering that the General Election Commission (KPU) has not named the participants in the elections. Bawaslu, Rahmat said, will then give the journalist the opportunity until December 14, 2022 to complete the material requirements with evidence that can prove an alleged election violation.
These alleged violations include election administration violations, violations of the code of ethics for election administrators, or electoral misdemeanors in the reported incidents.
“Bawaslu also ordered the Aceh Election Supervision Committee (Panwaslih) to review information related to the reported incident by visiting relevant parties,” Rahmat said.
NasDem Party presidential candidate Anies Baswedan was reported by civilians in Bawaslu as allegedly campaigning in a place of worship when he visited Aceh on 2 December 2022. In response to this, DPP Party Chairman NasDem Willy Aditya denied Anies was campaigning during a political safari at Mecca Veranda.
“Firstly, there is no campaign run by Anies and the NasDem Party. Because he hasn’t entered the scene yet. Anies is also the new candidate for the presidency of the NasDem. So where is the campaign?” Willy said when contacted on Wednesday 7 December 2022.
He also denied that Anies used a place of worship for his campaign. According to Willy, Anies was praying at the mosque at the time. The public then came to meet and take selfies with the former DKI Jakarta governor.
“What is it? What is the difference with public figure or artists experimenting with something like that too?” he said.
Willy said Anies’ political safari to various regions was meant to introduce Anies to the public. “If the speech is broad and broad, it means people really miss a figure like Pak Anies,” he said.
Anies Baswedan visited Mecca Veranda on 2-3 December 2022. NasDem Party Deputy Chairman Ahmad Ali explained that the reception of the people of Aceh on welcoming Anies was extraordinary.
“The public interest is extraordinary,” Ali told Tempo on Saturday, December 3, 2022.
Read also: Anies Baswedan told Bawaslu, NasDem denies there is a campaign
