MaxFM, Waingapu – The village head election (Pilkades) in 99 villages of East Sumba, which was previously delayed due to the increasing number of positive cases of Covid-19, will be held simultaneously on Monday (11/8/2021). In one village, the election is postponed to 2022 due to an administrative error by the committee.

Head of Village Community Empowerment Service (DPMD) of East Sumba, Franky Ranggambani, S.STP., M.Sc., confirmed the information through a telephone line broadcasted live at Max 96.9 FM Waingapu on Friday (29/10/2021) at a talkshow of “Warga Bicara”. Further, he explained the arrangement for simultaneous elections was based on a discussion with the local government and the Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkomipda).

Franky mentioned that the concurrent Pilkades should have been carried out in 2020. It was then postponed because the East Sumba general election occurred in the same year. Therefore, Pilkades is rescheduled to 2021.

“The initial plan was on August 28 but as the Covid-19 cases increased, we decided to postpone the event. It also to adheres to the instruction from the Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs (Mendagri) of two months deferral”, Franky said.

With the deferral periods ending on October 8, 2021, the local government of East Sumba made a rearrangement with the ministry. They were then asked to fulfill requirements for conducting simultaneous Pilkades during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“After we completed all of the requirements and reported it to the ministry, we held a meeting at a regency level. It concluded to carry it (Pilkades) out on November 8,” he said.

Franky also mentioned that the forms provided by the ministry have anticipated the risk of increasing numbers of Covid-19 cases on the post-election periods. Therefore, the upcoming Pilkades will obey health protocols. It is expected that there will be no new clusters of Covid-19 transmission following the Pilkades.

“There will be one TPS (voting place), but we add more booths to avoid crowds,” he said.

To enhance security during the Pilkades, Franky said that the committee gets support from the Police Chief (Kapolres) of Sumba Timur, AKBP Handrio Wicaksono, S.IK, and the Military District Commander (Dandim) 1601-Sumba Timur, Letkol Czi. Dr. Dwi Joko Siswanto. They will guard the election to maintain public security and order (Kamtibmas) during election. Additionally, the force is going to anticipate commotion or misconduct during and after voting day until the official announcement of the election result.

“Police Chief and the District Commander have pledged that they will guard the election. We hope there will be no commotion or misconduct in East Sumba,” he said.

Franky added that the initial plan was to carry out the election in 100 villages. However, one village has to postpone the election to 2022 due to administrative errors made by the village election committee.

“There are requirements for village-level election committee. One of them is a minimum academic of high school. However, it was found that one person’s educational background is junior high school, so the election at that village is postponed to 2022,” he said. (Translator : Itha Priyastiti)