Mata Massa receives enthusiastic response

JAKARTA. Mata Massa, an application that enables citizens to report election violations through their smartphones, has received an enthusiastic response from the country’s increasingly tech-savvy voters.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), which created the application, said on Friday it had received 294 reports after the inception of the program in early January.

According to AJI chairman Umar Idris, the 294 cases were reported mainly through the Mata Massa smartphone application and website, with 173 cases, followed by short text messages with 64 cases and emails with 57 cases.

“Most of the reports coming in were related to administrative violations, such as campaign attributes in inappropriate places,” he said.

Besides administrative violations, the public also reported vote buying, which included the distribution of hijabs and staple foods for flooding victims, Umar added.

“There are five such reports. The public also reported campaign violations conducted by political parties and presidential candidates through television broadcasts,” he said.