"Based on the intelligence surveillance, there is no potential unrest on the field. Instead, the potential riots have intensively been echoed through social media platforms," National Police Spokesman Brig.Gen. Dedi Prasetyo said here on Tuesday.
Therefore, cyber patrols have been intensified by the National Police Criminal Investigation Department's Cyber Directorate by collaborating with the Communication and Informatics Ministry and the Cyber Body and National Encryption Agency (BSSN).
The cyber patrols are aimed to oversee the social media accounts proliferating such inappropriate contents as fake news, hate speeches, and provocation ahead of the KPU's official announcement on May 22, he said.
"We are going to take down and block the social media accounts spreading hoaxes and provoking the public. If the social media account owners ignore us, the police's cyber units will take a law enforcement against them," he said.
On Monday, Prasetyo revealed that some 32 thousand police and military personnel will be stationed to secure the KPU building prior to the commission's official declaration of manual vote-recapitulation results of the recent elections on May 22.
The deployment of security apparatus to protect the KPU building will be done two days prior to its announcement of the official results of the recent general elections, he told journalists on Monday (May 13).
The mass deployment of personnel is a precautionary measure against attacks by terrorists looking to utilize the opportune moment of the KPU's official announcement on the election results, as the police had received information of the planned attacks.
The stationed security personnel will also protect the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) building and several national vital objects, adding that four security rings will be applied around and near the KPU building's neighborhood areas, he said.
The first security ring will lie inside the KPU building, while the second security ring will encompass the area around the commission's building, the third security ring will be located at the KPU building's yard, and the fourth security ring will be centered on the roads around the KPU building, he stated.
On April 17, over 80 percent of the 192 million eligible voters across Indonesia had cast their ballots to elect representatives in the House of Representatives (DPR), Regional Representatives Council (DPD), as well as provincial and district/city legislative bodies.
The people also exercised their franchise for their chosen presidential and vice presidential candidate pair at over 800 thousand polling stations across the archipelagic nation.
The pairs of Joko Widodo-Ma'ruf Amin, and Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno are currently looking forward to the KPU's real count, as the final result is legally binding.
Translator: Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Bambang Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
