Jakarta – An observer on global and strategic issues, Prof. Ambassador Imron Cotan revealed, new political parties (political parties) or non-parliamentary political parties are faced with a fierce electoral battle against political parties that already existed before. Meanwhile, the voter niche is narrowing to around 15 percent, based on Kompas findings.
Imron explained that in order to gain voter support and pass the electoral threshold, new political parties and non-parliamentary political parties are challenged to be able to present new and fresh ideas, while offering solutions to problems faced by Millennials and Generation Z, who account for around 50 percent of 206 million voters (BPS, 2022). The prominence of local figures with national and global perspectives is also important to break the domination of the political elite which is piled up in big cities on the island of Java. The 2024 contest opens up those opportunities.
“An important thing to note is that the Millennial Generation and Generation Z are detected as not having a “fixed” ideological choice, apart from being fixated on gadgets. “If they are able to attract the support of the younger generation using gadgets, new political parties have the potential to lead to the existence of political parties that were born earlier,” said Prof. Imron at the Moya Institute National Webinar with the theme “Challenges and Opportunities for New Political Parties in the 2024 Election”, Friday, 21 July 2023.
Secretary General of the Gelora Party Mahfudz Siddiq said that there were consequences for the new political parties to be established simultaneously between the Presidential and Legislative Elections in 2024. According to him, the event which was held at the same time made the public’s attention more concentrated on the Presidential Election and sidelined the issue of who would pass to parliament through the Pileg.
“Political parties that have presidential candidates will benefit more because they can boost the electability of their party, in contrast to new political parties. This requires extra effort by new political parties to socialize. The only way is to join in on the endorsement of certain presidential candidates,” said Mahfudz.
The Perindo Party Tuan Guru Bajang Daily Chairperson Zainul Mazdi said, amidst the various challenges that exist, new political parties still have great opportunities and opportunities to qualify for parliament or win seats in the DPR.
“An example of my own party is Perindo, which in the last 1.5 years has experienced an increase in electability and it continues to increase to this day. This proves that public acceptance of new political parties continues to exist. Moreover, Perindo runs programs that directly touch the lives of the lower classes, concluded Zainul.
Executive Director of the Indonesian Survey Institute Djayadi Hanan revealed, based on studies since the 2024 Election there were seven factors that influenced votes for political parties, namely having a figure covering all electoral districts; political party image; political party turnover; the ability to understand the map of competition between political parties; the charisma of the candidate at the local level; aware of the characteristics of voters; and election effects.
Djayadi explained that new political parties should not rely on just one strategy to gain votes, but should also be supported by a strategy that is suitable for the local level, by bringing in popular local figures.
Executive Director of the Moya Institute, Hery Sucipto, said that no matter how dynamic the political and democratic contests in 2024 are, it is hoped that the elections will take place in a democratic, peaceful and mature manner while at the same time presenting qualified leaders.
“Old and new political parties both have challenges and opportunities. The new narrative they carry will have a different impact. Identification of issues is the
most important thing to convince voters,” added Hery.