Ahead of simultaneous elections, Vice Presidents calls for all parties to maintain national security and unity

Jakarta-wapresri.go.id. When delivering a speech at the National Coordination Meeting of the 2017 Simultaneous Regional Elections held at Bidakara Hotel in Jakarta, Vice President Jusuf Kalla asked all parties to maintain the security and unity of the nation to make the elections as the festival of democracy run well.

Learning from simultaneous elections in 2015, the Vice President said, the conflicts that occurred during the campaigns was relatively small as there were no political patterns.

“There were still frictions occurring in social media though, with many scattered hoaxes,” told the Vice President in the event held on Tuesday (Jan. 31).

The Vice President also reminded, conflicts can occur after the voting or during the ballot calculation. He then called the security elements to remain vigilant during the days after the elections.

“Conflicts, based on previous experience, occurred just after the elections. This means, the security forces, the police, the military and the attorney offices should be watchful not only after the 15th (of February), but also up to two weeks after that, at the time of the announcement by the Election Commission,” he affirmed.

The Vice President also hoped that the simultaneous elections this year will not raise major frictions that will cause unrest in society.

“We hope there will not be ethnic, religion, race, and inter-group inspired conflicts that will result in a bigger problem in the future,” he argued.

The Vice President then observed that the election in Jakarta has a high risk, since the noise generated in this area will eventually become a barometer in the national level.

However, the Vice President demanded that any friction arising in Jakarta ahead of elections to be solved in the realm of law, thus it will create tranquility.

“For that reason, the faster an issue taken up by the law, the faster it is prevented from causing other problems,” the message Vice President.

The Vice President then once again asked all parties, whether the public, security officers, law enforcement officials, or heads of regions to ensure the democratic process runs at its best.

“We hope that the democracy that we want to uphold in this country can be realized through a good process, as democracy will only grow in such a condition. That is why we need a fair togetherness among us all to ensure this condition to exist,” he said.

On that occasion, the Vice President appreciated the performance of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) that have done their tasks very well.

After the first direct election was held in 2004, in 2015 Indonesia conducted regional elections simultaneously. Eventually, it is expected that in every 5 years there will be only 3 elections, which are 2 regional elections and one legislative elections which is held at the same time with the presidential election. It is believed that this mechanism is much more efficient than the implementation of the previous elections.

Also present in the meeting were Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo as well as representatives of 101 regions across Indonesia, ranging from regional military commanders, regional chiefs of police, attorney officials, governors, mayors, and regents.

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