inp.polri.go.id - Jakarta. Chairman of the Indonesian Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) Rahmat Bagja said political education is important for the public to avoid polarization in the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections through racism issues, hate speech, and hoaxes.

The public can also be urged to seek true and good information regarding their regional head candidates.

“However, beware as there are some who would resort to polarizing the people through racism issues, hate speech, and hoax to attack their electoral opponents. The goal of their action is to seek benefit from the ensuing chaos and causing people to not participate and lowering their confidence in the candidates they support,” said Rahmat on Friday (11/8/2024).

According to him, such a method clearly damages the honest and fair democratic order, because with the current intensity of social media use, if not properly handled, it will increase the potential for polarization in society.

"This was proven in the 2017 Jakarta Gubernatorial Election and the 2019 Election. In fact it threatens the security and disintegration of national and state life," said the Chairman of Bawaslu.

Even so, the Chairman of Bawaslu saw that in the 2024 Election, cooperation between Bawaslu, General Election Commission, government and civil society such as Cek Fakta, in reducing tension and polarization on social media, was successful.

Thus, the 2024 Election succeeded in handling the polarization, hoaxes, and hate speech on social media, delivering a successful and smooth election.

Furthermore, he stated that people, as the sovereigns, must be given various kinds of political education.

He said that increasing public awareness and understanding of the importance of verification in the context of elections cannot be done alone but together.

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