VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - The Regional Police of West Papua will station special troops across all regions of West Papua Province and Southwest Papua Province in a bid to facilitate smooth implementation of the 2024 elections.

West Papua Police Chief Inspector General Daniel Tahi Monang Silitonga stated in Manokwari on Monday that the police will optimize all its potential to ensure that the festival of democracy in 2024 goes safely and peacefully.

"The National Police Chief has urged us to maximize the efforts to maintain security. As a follow-up to this instruction, we will prepare special troops that will be ready to move in the event of disruption," Silitonga remarked.

He affirmed that the police is committed to safeguarding the elections by creating a conducive situation, so that the people can exercise their voting rights.

In its efforts to maintain conduciveness and stability, the police will also involve traditional, public, religious, and youth figures, he stated.

"The police will exert all-out efforts to provide the finest services to the people," he stressed.

Chief Silitonga then confirmed that the West Papua Police will dispatch its personnel to regions to assist the local police in securing the 2024 elections.

This method will be applied as a measure to address the issue of personnel shortage at several resort police units, both in West Papua and Southwest Papua.

As a result, all polling stations, especially those in threat-prone locations, will be guarded by police officers.

"There will be no additional personnel from outside (of the two provinces). We will temporarily rotate our existing personnel," Silitonga noted.

Furthermore, the inspector general said that the police is always paying close attention to security developments for the public ahead of the elections.

In order to maintain public conduciveness, the police is striving to optimize the role of the Public Security and Order Supervising Officers (Bhabinkamtibmas), he noted.

Apart from providing education and dissemination of information to the public, Bhabinkabtibmas also has the role of collecting initial intelligence information on the field to be evaluated by local police.

"For the upcoming elections, they (Bhabinkamtibmas) will be provided with training courses, so they can collect all information," he noted.

In addition, the West Papua Police is currently conducting a study on the program called RW Police that aims to maintain public security and order in a very narrow residential scope.

"The study is aimed at providing us with information on how to make a significant impact on public security and order through the deployment of police personnel to remote areas. We are currently conducting a study to adjust to the geographical conditions in the two provinces," he stated. (Antaranews)