Maria Gabrielle, Jakarta – Prabowo Subianto's campaign team has formally lodged 41 reports with the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), detailing purported efforts to undermine Prabowo's candidacy in the 2024 Presidential Election.
"The motive behind these sabotage attempts is the skyrocketing electability of Prabowo-Gibran, which may lead some individuals to feel frustrated and lose faith in democratic methods to counter Prabowo-Gibran," said Deputy Chairman of TKN Prabowo-Gibran, Habiburokhman, during a press conference at TKN's Media Center on Sunday.
From March 2023 to early 2024, Prabowo has seen an increase of 19.5 points in Polltracking's presidential surveys. In the latest poll conducted by Poltracking, 46.9 percent of respondents expressed their intention to vote for Prabowo in the upcoming February 14 election.
In contrast, rival candidate Ganjar Pranowo, who was an early favorite, has seen a significant decline in popularity, plummeting from 36.9 percent in March 2023 to 20.2 percent in January 2024. The third candidate, Anies Baswedan, has experienced a 5.4-point increase in respondents' support, reaching 26.7 percent over the same period.
Habiburokhman outlined three scenarios aimed at sabotaging Prabowo. Firstly, there are allegations of structured, systematic, and massive fraud that are deemed detrimental to Prabowo and Gibran.
"These fraudulent activities include the use of authority by regional heads, ministries, or institutions whose officials are politically affiliated with certain political parties supporting specific candidates. These activities are occurring in various provinces across Indonesia," he explained.
Habiburokhman provided a recent example of the alleged misuse of the Semarang City Budget for the procurement of red motorcycles, which are identical to the colors of specific political parties. The second scenario involves the alleged mobilization of Dharma Wanita (Women's Welfare Organization) members to attend a joint exercise with the wife of a specific presidential candidate in North Sulawesi on Jan. 17, 2024.
"There are suspicions of utilizing village assistant officers from the Village Ministry to become part of the campaign team for a particular candidate. We have received recent information that if village assistant officers refuse to support that candidate, their appointments will not be extended," said Habiburokhman.
In response to these allegations of fraud, the Legal and Advocacy Team of Prabowo-Gibran National Campaign has officially submitted 41 reports to the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), two reports to the Press Council, two reports to the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), along with five reports to the Constitutional Court Supervisory Board (DKPP), and five criminal reports.