Hargo.co.id, GORONTALO – The organizers of the 2024 general elections have issued various regulations and prohibitions during the campaign period.
One of these rules concerns the placement of campaign tools such as billboards for the candidates. Certain locations are prohibited for billboard placement, including main roads, thoroughfares, public facilities, parks, and trees.
Unfortunately, these rules seem to be overlooked by Rachmat Gobel’s campaign team, a candidate for the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) in the Gorontalo electoral district from the NasDem party.
As evidence, numerous billboards of Rachmat Gobel were found nailed to trees or stretched from one tree to another.
This has sparked criticism from Sofyan Ishak, the Chairman of Karang Taruna in Gorontalo Regency. According to him, billboards of various sizes like these are undoubtedly haphazardly placed.
Sofyan pointed out that the mechanism for installing campaign billboards is regulated in the General Election Commission (KPU) Regulation on Guidelines for the Implementation of Legislative Campaigns.
Article 17 of the regulation states that campaign tools should not be placed in certain locations, one of which is on trees.
“The facts I found in the field, in the Telaga Cs area, are that many billboards are placed on trees, whether using nails or tied with ropes,” he said.
Sofyan deeply regrets the non-compliance with these regulations in billboard placement. Moreover, he emphasized that these campaign tools belong to a state official who should set a good example.
“It’s really regrettable that with the status as Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Mr. Rachmat should strengthen the rules and procedures for installing billboards to his team. So that they do not install billboards like this arbitrarily,” Sofyan concluded.
Wahyudin Akili, a member of the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) Division of Violations Handling and Dispute Resolution, confirmed taking enforcement measures in response to the violation of placing billboards in prohibited locations.
He mentioned that they have already taken steps in accordance with regulations, including providing warnings to DPR RI candidates whose billboards, banners, and posters were placed in prohibited places such as government facilities (electric poles) and trees.
“As of December 6, we have given warnings to DPR RI candidates whose campaign tools, such as banners and posters, are placed in prohibited places like government facilities (electric poles), trees,” he said in an interview on Wednesday (12/13/2023).
“Our supervision results show that campaign tools in several areas have been independently regulated, such as on main roads in Tibawa and Limboto Districts, although it must be admitted that there are still campaign tools like that in all districts,” added Wahyudin.
He further explained that they have provided written recommendations for improvement, which will be followed up by the sub-district Election Supervisory Boards (Panwascam) in Gorontalo Regency to do the same.
“We hope that all candidates will obey and comply with the regulations, setting a good example for the community by not doing things that may indicate violations,” Wahyudin emphasized.
Separately, the Chairman of the Nasdem Regional Leadership Council (DPD) in Gorontalo Regency, Roman Nasaru, when asked about the billboard and banner placement of Rachmat Gobel on trees and electric poles, admitted that since the beginning of these installations, he had instructed NasDem officials to tidy them up.
Moreover, he added, this instruction was directly given by Mr. RG himself.
“It was a few days ago, but I still see some that are installed, so I expect cadres and officials to immediately tidy up and clean them up because the ones who installed these are volunteers. We, as a party element and cadres, are trying to tidy them up,” concluded Roman.(*)
Author: Deice
