GORONTALO – As the political hustle or the 2024 General Election (Pemilu) comes closer, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo is trying to educate and enlighten the academic community regarding civil servant neutrality. This effort involves holding outreach on ASN’s neutrality in the 2024 election by presenting a keynote speaker from the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) of Gorontalo Province on Friday (12/1).

Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Dr. Abdul Hafidz Olii, M.Si., said that the talks with Bawaslu of Gorontalo Province were part of the follow-up to the collaboration between the two institutions. This outreach is crucial so ASN at UNG can maintain the spirit of neutrality as the government’s institution.

"This is to clarify the position of ASN in facing the 2024 election, and it will also talk about must-obeyed rules. "So there needs to be a clearer understanding conveyed directly by Bawaslu through a forum like this," said Hafidz.

Chairman of Bawaslu of Gorontalo Province, Idris Usuli, stated that ASN has a strategic role in organizing the election. So, they are expected to maintain neutrality, not be involved in practical political activities, and ensure that every citizen has the same right to vote according to his/her wishes and beliefs.

Idris reminded ASN, especially those within the UNG, not to get involved in campaign activities for the 2024 election, whether for legislative candidates or presidential and vice presidential candidates. This prohibition includes campaigning via social media, liking, disliking and sharing content related to posts by legislative candidates and presidential and vice presidential candidates.

"Any violation does have its criminal provisions, so if ASN violates the rules by taking part in election campaign activities, they can be subject to criminal sanctions in the form of imprisonment for a maximum of one year and a fine of a maximum of 12 million rupiahs," he emphasized. (**)