"To make Wednesday, Dec 9, 2020, as a national holiday for the simultaneous elections of governors and deputy governors, district and deputy district heads, as well as mayors and deputy mayors," the decree stipulates as posted on the website page of setneg.go.id on Saturday.
The 2020 Pilkada will be organized in 270 regions in Indonesia, covering nine provinces, 224 districts, and 37 cities.
Initially, the election day for Pilkada would have been held on Sept 23, 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the voting day was postponed to Dec 9 that is also International Anti-Corruption Day.
The registration stage for the 2020 Pilkada candidate pairs was conducted on September 4-6, 2020. The KPU verified and announced the election participants on Sept 23. The campaign period runs from Sept 26 to Dec 5, 2020, or for 71 days.
A total of 734 nominee pairs have registered as candidate pairs for the 2020 Pilkada.
Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has frequently lent considerable weightage to no compromises being made in implementing the COVID-19 health protocols during each stage of the local elections, saying public health remains an unwavering priority. "I need to once again reaffirm that the health of the people is everything, which means there would be no compromises in the implementation of health protocols," the president had stated on September 8, 2020.
The head of state underscored the criticality of implementing health protocols in the wake of continued and gross health protocol violations by prospective candidate pairs, including the holding of concerts during the participation declarations, adding that such actions cannot be tolerated.
Related news: Komnas HAM highlights rise in COVID-19 cases during election campaign
Related news: Medan: KPU office finds 3,388 damaged ballot papers
Translator: Desca LN, Fardah
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2020
