PRESS RELEASE

2020 Regional Election Ignores People's Safety: 76 Regional Head Candidates Infected with COVID-19, Four Die

Jakarta, December 6 2020. The decision taken by the DPR, government and election organizers on 21 September 2020 to continue holding elections for 270 regional heads simultaneously on 9 December 2020 in the midst of the uncontrolled COVID-19 pandemic is proof that the government is ignoring the health and mental safety of its citizens.

As of Sunday, December 6 2020, more than half a million Indonesians were exposed to COVID-19, and at least 17,000 people died with positive COVID-19 status. The actual number of victims could be much higher, due to poor data collection. Until now, data gaps between regional governments and the central government still exist. LaporCovid-19 data, based on district and city reports in Indonesia, shows that the total number of COVID-19 victims in Indonesia, including suspects and probables, has reached 42,602 people.

From time to time, the number of new cases of COVID-19 nationally is increasing. In fact, since November 29, every day there have been more than 6,000 new cases or people infected with COVID-19. Then it peaked on Thursday 3 December with 8,369 new cases. In fact, the number of cases obtained from examinations is still minimal. Until now, the total number of COVID-19 tests in Indonesia is only around 90 of the minimum threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

On November 23-29, the World Health Organization, WHO recorded the highest increase in the number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in Indonesia during the pandemic. That is 13.5, from the previous 11.3 people per 100,000 population. WHO noted that of the 34 provinces, only five provinces have met the testing standards per thousand population per week, namely DKI Jakarta, Central Java, Yogyakarta, West Sumatra and East Kalimantan, but none of them has a positive proportion below 5%.

The two things above show that the pandemic is getting out of control and endangering the health of citizens. But unfortunately, even this figure has not been able to stop the government's decision to continue holding regional elections. Apart from that, Pusara Digital LaporCovid19 shows that more than 390 health workers died during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the midst of fatigue of health workers, the capacity of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) services at referral hospitals for COVID-19 patients is reported to be full in various regions, so that many symptomatic patients find it difficult to receive treatment. The regional elections actually worsened the situation of health worker fatigue.

Many Active Cases, Minimal Testing

With the high rate of transmission, it is feared that regional elections held in 270 regions (9 provinces, 37 cities and 224 districts) simultaneously on December 9 will further increase the scale of the outbreak. It is important to note that even though it was held in 37 cities, 224 districts and 9 provinces, this Pilkada had an impact on 309 districts/cities. This is because there are 48 other city districts participating in the gubernatorial election.

Apart from that, regional election mobility also occurred across regions, including the arrival of party officials from Jakarta to various regions. This causes the risk of transmission to spread even more nationally. Based on data collected by volunteers from the Citizens' Coalition for LaporCovid-19, as of December 4, 270 districts/cities holding regional elections still had a high number of active positive cases of COVID-19 with a total number of active cases of 43,377 people with low test coverage. There are 21 regions that have more than 500 active positive cases, and 65 cities/districts have more than 100 active positive cases.

A total of four regions have more than 1,000 active positive cases, namely Depok City, West Java (2,407), two cities in Central Java, namely Solo (1,041) and Wonosobo (1,439), and West Waringin City, Central Kalimantan (1,270).

Even though active COVID-19 cases in regional election areas are quite high, examination coverage is still low, which indicates poor efforts to control the outbreak. The unavailability of data on the number of PCR tests per person per day in almost all regions does not allow the public to obtain information regarding test coverage. Using the number of PCR tests per province with a correction factor of 1.4, it shows that 73 districts/cities have less than 0.5% examination coverage of their entire population, 100 regions have examination coverage of 0.5-1%, and 133 regions have examination coverage of more than 1% - 4%.

Apart from that, the death rate in various regions holding regional elections has also increased, both deaths that were confirmed positive and those with probable status. If you refer to the guidelines for recording COVID-19 deaths from WHO, the total number of deaths in 270 regional election districts/cities reached 12,945 people.

Regional Election Participants Also Become Victims

Of the 9 provinces that will hold gubernatorial elections, there is one gubernatorial candidate who has not yet tested negative for COVID-19. Cumulatively, to date at least 76 regional head candidates who will take part in the regional elections have been or are currently infected with the new Corona virus. Of the 76 regional head candidates, 44 are regent candidates, 19 deputy regent candidates, 10 mayoral candidates, two deputy mayoral candidates and one gubernatorial candidate.

Four of them died because they were confirmed positive for COVID19. The four candidates for regional head consist of two mayoral candidates, namely Eko Suharjo, candidate for mayor of Dumai, Riau who was promoted by the Democratic, Gerindra, and Hanura parties (died 9/11) and AdiDarma, candidate for Mayor of Bontang (Nasdem, PDIP, PKS) who died on 25 September 2020. The other two people are candidates for regent of Central Bangka district, Ibnu Saleh (Nasdem, Golkar, PAN, PKB, Gerindra, PPP, and PKS) who died on 27 September 2020 and the Regent of Berau Muharram as the incumbent candidate for regent (died 10/09).

As of December 5 2020, there were still five regional head candidates still under treatment, namely one candidate for governor and four candidates for regent and deputy regent). They are the candidate for governor of Central Kalimantan province, Sugianto Sabran (announced he was exposed to COVID on 11/19), the candidate for regent of South Tapanuli Regency, M Siregar (announced positive confirmation 26/11), the candidate for regent of Indramayu Regency, Daniel Mutaqien (announced positive confirmation 21/11), the candidate for deputy regent of Pangkajene & Islands Regency, South Sulawesi, Syahban Sammana (announced positive confirmation 11/24), and candidate for deputy regent of Lamongan district, East Java, Abdul Rouf (announced positive confirmation 11/26).

The data above does not include the families of regional head candidates who were exposed to the new corona virus and who died as a result of this exposure. Therefore, LaporCovid-19 states that:

1. The government should continue to postpone the implementation of regional elections until the COVID-19 pandemic is under control. This means that there will be no increase in new COVID-19 cases, improved testing, contact tracing and isolation service facilities for COVID-19 patients. If the regional elections continue, there will be the potential for hospitals and our health workers to collapse.
2. The government's neglectful attitude in continuing to hold simultaneous regional elections has been proven to endanger the health and safety of the lives of regional election participants and committee members, as well as the community.
3. The KPU's plan to take the patient's voice and use rapid antibody tests for KPPS endangers the health and safety of officers and other people who interact with them. Rapid antibody tests cannot be used to confirm a diagnosis.
4. The increase in the number of positive confirmations caused by the Pilkada cluster and, moreover, causing casualties due to not being handled properly, is clearly not just negligence, but deliberate by the Government, which should have known and been aware of the risks that were occurring. This is a systematic and widespread form of human rights violation.

Contact Person:

Yemiko Happy
(WA: +62 813-5898-2549)

Said F. Hibban
(WA: +62 815-2744-0489)

Irma Hidayana
(WA: +1917-941-9383)

This press release can be downloaded via the following link