Vice Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives M. Azis Syamsuddin. Photo : Jaka/Man

Vice Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives M. Azis Syamsuddin hoped that the candidate registration process of 2020 simultaneous regional elections would not become new COVID-19 clusters. He strongly urged the election commissions and the candidates to implement strict health protocols.

He said that the health protocols are necessary to be implemented from the beginning of the election process, such as not bringing large entourages when registering the candidates. “I do hope that the registration for the 2020 simultaneous regional elections will not become new COVID-19 clusters during the candidate registration process,” stated Syamsuddin in a press release received by Parliamentaria, Saturday (5/9/2020).

The Leader of the Indonesian House for Politics and Security pushed the election commissions to limit the candidates’ entourages to enter the registration area. He mentioned that one person per supporting party would be enough to accompany the candidates and they are expected not to carry out a convoy with large entourages.

“If a candidate is supported by 5 parties, a chairperson of each party representing the region is enough. This preventive measure is taken to avoid from creating large crowds in the registration day,” said the politician of Golkar Party.

Syamsuddin also hoped that the Regional Elections Commission could provide a live broadcast of the registration process of the 2020 candidate pairs on social media applications to enable public follow the process virtually from home or outside the Regional Elections Commission’s office and avoid crowds from amassing.

“Along with the development of technology, I believe that a live broadcast of the registration process is an answer to the public’s desire to see firsthand the candidate pairs of regional elections they support through social media applications. Public will witness the unique way of candidates registering and submitting their documents to Regional Elections Commission’s office,” concluded the legislator from Lampung II constituency.