CIDISS. The election of regional heads simultaneously in 2018 was held on June 27. However, there are 13 areas that are only followed by a single candidate. Some parties consider the existence of 13 single candidates will eliminate the process of democracy. However, Chairman of the Election Commission, Arief Budiman said, it can not prohibit the existence of a single candidate pair in the regional head election. Although the box is empty, but the two columns have the same value.
When casting, casting blank columns is legitimate, as well as pornographic images. Popping blank columns is meant for voters who want to keep voting even if the available candidate pairs are not suitable. This should be facilitated because it would be more unfavorable if only available candidates and people choose to golput.
After that, then the question arises about what would happen if the single candidate was lost and won by an empty box? Based on Arief Budiman, if the empty box wins, then the candidate of the existing regional head will not be elected so that will be elected re-regional head. This is already implied in our laws so the public need not worry.
Although there are a number of concerns among the community, this is a natural thing because not all parties know the possibility of conducting the election of a single candidate against a blank box. However, please note that this has been regulated in the law so that everything is still running within government estimates. It is quite a lot of areas that carry out the election of regional heads using empty boxes but that is not a problem. We need to appreciate the smooth running of regional head elections simultaneously this year, given the number of acts of terror that occurred prior to the voting.
By: Mirwan Achmad *)
