TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) Commander Marshall Hadi Tjahjanto revealed potential conflicts during the regional head election in 2020. He mentioned that Papua province was among the conflict-prone regions during the democracy festival.

“One of the regions that are predicted to have potentials of election conflict due to issues of SARA, horizontal conflicts, and money politics in Papua,” said Hadi during a meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Defense Commission, at Parliament Complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Wednesday, November 6.

As many as 270 regions; comprising 9 provinces, 37 cities, and 224 districts, will hold the 2020 simultaneous regional head elections. The election process lasted from October 1, 2019, until September 23, 2020.

The TNI commander reiterated that the conflict potentials during the election were detected in the aspect of the implementation, contestation, and participation. Therefore, the military would join the security measures.

Hadi further said that his institution would prepare personnel and primary defense weapon systems (alutsista) to assist the National Police in securing the regional head election in the country's easternmost province. “In the previous election, TNI exerted strengths up to two-thirds of the police’s,” he said.

BUDIARTI UTAMI PUTRI