Oktaviani noted that the fact that the presidential candidates have not spoken about women's issues shows their insensitivity toward these issues.
"Not only in the vice presidential debate last Sunday (March 17), in the previous two rounds of debate, both pairs have not said anything about women's issues. It is very unfortunate," she said when contacted here on Monday.
Women and men have different experiences on energy, environment, welfare, education, and health matters. Therefore, it is crucial for these issues to be discussed specifically during the debate.
"Since the preparation of the second debate, Indonesian Women's Coalition and Diverse Indonesia had lobbied the General Election Commissions to ensure that women's issues would be addressed during every debate," Oktaviani stated.
However, their efforts had not shown any outcome.
The third debate was held on Sunday night last week and was attended by two Vice Presidential candidates with the theme education, employment, society, and culture.
The Indonesian Women's Coalition is a women's organization that fights for women's justice and democracy.
The candidates for the upcoming 2019 Presidential election are candidates number 01 Joko Widodo-Ma'ruf Amin and candidates number 02 Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno.
Translator: Azizah Fitriyanti, Safira Hali
Editor: Sri Haryati
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
