Vice President Ma'ruf Amin appealed to the community, especially parents, not to take children to election campaign events ahead of the 2024 General Elections.
He urged people to try and understand the rationale behind rules that prohibit children from taking part in any political activity, including election campaigns.
"It is dangerous if children are taken (to campaign events)," he cautioned in Jakarta on Thursday.
Amin said that children, who are not at an age where they can understand politics, can experience trauma if they are involved in election campaign activities.
According to Article 280, Paragraph (2), Letter k, of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning the General Elections, implementers and/or campaign teams are prohibited from involving Indonesian citizens who do not have the right to vote in election campaign activities.
Law Number 35 of 2014 concerning Amendments to Law Number 23 of 2002 on Child Protection also states that children cannot be involved in political activities.
Earlier, a commissioner of the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) for civil and freedom rights, Sylvana Maria, informed that her commission has received complaints, including on the use of children as spokespersons for candidates, during the election campaigning period.
Ten complaints have been lodged against legislative candidates and teams of presidential and vice presidential candidates so far, Maria said in Jakarta on Monday (January 22, 2024).
"Apart from that, children also become in-between targets for the campaigns. So, the campaigns are targeted at parents, but children are targeted by giving them items that are not campaign tools," she explained.
Another frequent complaint to KPAI has been about children being used as objects of money politics or vote buying by legislative candidates.
In addition, the commission has received information about viral content showing children sharing their opinions on certain candidates.
Indonesia will hold the 2024 General Elections on February 14, 2024, in which around 204.8 million voters are expected to participate. The campaigning period for the elections started on November 28, 2023, and will end on February 10, 2024.
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