Jakarta – The 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections (Pilkada) to be held on November 27 are expected to be held safely, honestly, and fairly. The General Election Commission (KPU) together with the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) and all related parties are committed to ensuring that the Pilkada process runs with high transparency and is free from hoaxes.
KPU Chairman Muhammad Afifuddin said that one of the biggest challenges in the 2024 Pilkada is efforts to prevent the spread of false information (hoaxes) that can damage integrity.
His party has also collaborated with related government agencies and non-governmental organizations such as the Indonesian Anti-Defamation Society (Mafindo) to anticipate the threat of hoaxes in the 2024 Pilkada.
“We have a team together with several agencies, Kemenkomdigi and so on to anticipate hoaxes. The point is all parties must play a role, together maintaining a conducive situation,” said Afifuddin.
In addition to hoaxes, he also said that the Indonesian KPU anticipates polarization using dangerous issues during the 2024 Pilkada process.
“Hoax news and misinformation on several media platforms are the highest threats in the 2024 Pilkada, so the public must anticipate political polarization that can damage the Pilkada process,” he added.
“We want people to have the skills to filter before sharing. With sufficient knowledge, people will be more critical of information circulating on social media and avoid spreading false news,” he said.
In addition, Bawaslu also has an important role in supervision, not only of the voting process, but also in monitoring the distribution of information during the 2024 Pilkada process.
In addition, the Chairman of Bawaslu RI, Rahmat Bagja reminded the public not to be easily influenced by news that has not been proven to be true.
“Hoaxes can influence a person’s political choices, therefore we must be wiser in filtering information,” explained Rahmat.
In addition to the hoax issue, Bawaslu is also focusing on increasing voter participation, strengthening accessibility for people with disabilities, and ensuring that all Pilkada candidates comply with the principles of honest and fair democracy.
With these various anticipatory steps, the 2024 Pilkada is expected to create an election process that is free from fraud and hoaxes, and produce leaders who are truly elected by the people in a democratic and legitimate manner.
