General Elections (Elections) always present various stories, all dynamics related to elections are always interesting to discuss, moreover 60 percent of voters seem to come from young voters, which of course makes political parties vying to be able to win votes from market share young adult. Even though the number of young voters is quite large, this group is also prone to not participating in elections, aka abstentions.
Therefore various efforts must be made to reduce the possibility of young people becoming abstentions, such as providing education about political literacy because many of the younger generation do not understand the essence of politics. This of course could be a problem, because with the high number of abstentions, this could actually result in incompetent legislative candidates being elected and strolling into legislative seats.
Ireng Maulana as a Political Observer for West Kalimantan (West Kalimantan) said that young people’s voices tend not to know about politics, they don’t even want to participate in democratic parties. This is what made him take the initiative to invite young people, especially the millennial generation, to be active in elections.
In Ireng’s opinion, it is acknowledged that today’s young people, apart from thinking critically, must also move to act as a driving force for friends who are indifferent to the world of politics in Indonesia. He said that young people are the spearhead for this nation to better progress and protect more in an era where young people are more concerned and interested in the political field of this country.
The younger generation has an important role in the nation’s problems. Especially when entering a political year, students are of course the target of the vote market by a number of political parties, moreover the number of students in Indonesia reaches around 8 million which is a quantitatively significant number.
Young voters in the election context of course they are in a vortex between political enthusiasm and apathy. On the one hand, they are very excited and want to know about the election, especially through social media. However, this enthusiasm is not necessarily in line with the reality of their political behavior, not even a few among the first time voters, including students who prefer not to exercise their right to vote, aka abstentions.
In order to prevent the politicization of young voters, the rise of money politics, the lack of understanding related to technical tagging or voting and so on, the KPU as an organizing institution must be more intense in carrying out political literacy by conducting voter education for young voters so that they become voters who prioritize rationality in voting. make the choice. In voter education, understanding and technical skills for valid voting must also be provided so that the presence of young voters at polling stations is not in vain.
On the other hand, the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) also needs to play a role in saving the fate of millions of young voters. For this reason, Bawaslu also needs to encourage and ensure that the KPU and the Ministry of Home Affairs take certain steps, both in terms of regulations and in practice.
The young voter base is used as the basis for voter socialization and education movements because it is quite significant. In the election context, those who are called the young voter base are Indonesian citizens who already have the right to vote and whose age does not exceed 30 years. Thus, the age range of young voters is 22-30 years.
Election itself is one of the pillars of democracy as a venue for the realization of people’s sovereignty in order to produce a government and political representative institutions that have strong legitimacy from the people. Therefore, the election process must run in an honest, fair, free and confidential and democratic way. Moreover, the Indonesian people have agreed that elections are part of the process of strengthening effective and efficient governance.
Youth groups must also be aware of the dangers of hoaxes or fake news. Don’t be easily provoked, let alone participate in spreading hoaxes. Young people need to be critical of information that is not necessarily true before disseminating this information.
One of the reasons for the emergence of abstentions is the indifference and distrust of society towards politics. Though abstentions will not be a solution to solve the problem. Precisely by using the right to vote during elections, people can choose leaders who have integrity and are anti-corruption, so that the government can be run in a clean, honest and fair manner.
A country that adheres to democracy means that it is a country that involves all its citizens in making and making decisions both directly and through representatives. However, the high abstentions are an indicator that the people no longer feel a spirit of democracy, but rather are apathetic towards the people who are nominated.
The Young Group with their enthusiasm and idealism needs to make democracy more alive. Young people should not be trapped in election skepticism which in the future will only harm the Indonesian nation. Young people with good digital literacy must of course be able to recognize election participants and choose prospective leaders with integrity.
