Callistasia Anggun Wijaya, Jakarta – The elections ethics council reprimanded Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) head Sumarno on Friday, saying that he had failed to treat both Jakarta gubernatorial candidates equally.

The Election Organization Ethics Council (DKPP) decided that Sumarno had violated the code of ethics in response to a complaint from incumbent candidate Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama's camp.

Ahok's team claimed that the KPU Jakarta head had acted in favor of Ahok's rival, Anies Baswedan, during the March 4 announcement of the runoff election at the Borobudur Hotel in Central Jakarta.

As the event started late, Ahok and his running mate, Djarot Saiful Hidayat walked out from the venue after telling the press that the commission was acting unprofessionally.

A volunteer group backing Ahok reported Sumarno to the DKPP on March 16 for a series of alleged incidents indicating that he favored the governor's rival.

Sumarno accepted the DKPP's decision, saying that he hoped communication between the commission and the campaign teams could be improved in the future.

"From the Borobudur case, the head of DKPP concluded that our communication [with the campaign teams] was not good. Therefore, he suggested that we provide rooms inside our office for both campaign teams," Sumarno said after handing over room keys to the representatives of both Ahok's and Anies' campaign teams.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/04/08/elections-commission-head-violated-ethics-dkpp.html