The Importance of Community Participatory Supervision to Realize the 2024 Regional Elections to be Honest and Fair
By: Chandra Budi Setyo
All elements of society in Indonesia without exception have the same responsibility, namely to carry out participatory supervision to continue to oversee the implementation of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections (Pilkada), so that the political contestation event can take place honestly and fairly.
Continuing to maintain the integrity of every process of implementing regional level democratic celebrations is very important. Because the implementation of honest and fair Pilkada is not only the responsibility of the organizers of the General Election (Pemilu) and also the security or law enforcement apparatus alone, but it must also continue to be pursued by all elements of society.
The realization of active participation from the community in supervising the implementation of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections is certainly very crucial in order to ensure that every vote the people give can truly reflect the will of the citizens.
In addition, with active participation, it is not impossible that the region concerned will become more advanced or developed because it has a trustworthy leader.
Participatory supervision is a form of direct community involvement in monitoring the course of the Pilkada process. This is important because the community as the owner of the vote is the party most interested in clean and integrity-based election results.
When the community participates in supervision, a healthy and transparent atmosphere of mutual control will be created. This will also encourage election organizers, Pilkada participants, and law enforcement officers to work more professionally and accountably.
In many cases, violations and fraud in the regional elections often occur due to weak supervision. With the community actively involved, the potential for violations can be minimized because perpetrators of fraud will think twice if they know that their every move is being closely monitored by the community. A community that is aware and sensitive to regional election issues will also find it easier to detect indications of fraud early on, so that it can be reported and followed up immediately.
Many government steps have been realized in the community, including through the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu). As in Bekasi City, which collaborated with local residents to jointly reject all forms of fraud in the 2024 Pilkada event.
Member of the Bekasi City Bawaslu, Choirunnisa Marzoeki, hopes that the community will be able to play an active role in preventing and rejecting all fraudulent actions during the Pilkada.
There are several fraudulent practices that are important to continue to receive attention and be aware of, namely the practice of money politics, then the spread of hate speech, and also fake news or hoaxes.
The public must not only continue to be aware of the various potential frauds during the implementation of the regional democratic party, but must also be able to continue to be very actively involved even at every stage.
So that the community not only plays a role on the voting day, but must be involved in every stage, including during the registration of Regional Head candidates and health checks, campaigns, voting, determination, announcements and so on.
It is very important that participatory supervision continues to be encouraged to grow in the community. The Head of Bawaslu East Java, A. Warits explained that active community participation is actually already in the constitution, namely the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution because it mandates people’s sovereignty to be something fundamental in the organization of this nation.
Furthermore, the role of the younger generation is no less important, such as students to oversee the entire process of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections. The Coordinator of the Prevention, Community Participation and Public Relations Division of the Bali Bawaslu, Ketut Ariyani, stated that the supervision they carried out was not only a preventive measure against potential fraud or violations.
But more than that, namely as a means for in-depth political learning for these students. Therefore, the participatory spirit in supervising the Pilkada and the election should continue to spread.
All of these things will later be able to provide a very positive impact even on the political climate in the country if society experiences increased awareness and active involvement, including among young people in the democratic process.
The 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections themselves are a very important momentum in the history of the democratic party in Indonesia. Therefore, so that the entire political contestation process can run smoothly, full of the principles of honesty and justice, it really requires active participation from all elements of society without exception.
The existence of participatory supervision is not only the responsibility of a particular group, but is a shared task and responsibility of all elements of society without exception in the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).
By realizing the steps of mutual cooperation, it is not impossible that the Indonesian people will be able to create a clean, transparent, and integrated 2024 Simultaneous Regional Election and ensure that the results of the regional level democratic party truly reflect the will of the people or in other words, have high legitimacy.
All elements of society must continue to work together to create a democratic climate in the country that is much better for the future of Indonesia.
)* Political Observer, Gala Indomedia Institute
