The KPU continues to strive to increase community political participation in the 2024 regional elections
By: Annisa Aulia )*
The General Election Commission (KPU) continues to strive to increase political participation from all elements and layers of society in the implementation of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections (Pilkada).
This is because it is very important that political participation from the entire community can continue to increase, so that the 2024 Pilkada event as a regional level democratic party can run successfully.
Therefore, the KPU as the election organizer continues to strive to increase political participation from the community to ensure the success of the 2024 regional elections.
One of these efforts is to carry out outreach by inviting journalists to increase voter participation, as the East Java KPU has done because it is able to establish synergy with members of the press in order to publish various information related to the stages of holding the Regional Head Election.
Chairman of the East Java Provincial General Election Commission, Aang Kuniafi, explained that disseminating information related to all stages of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections was able to increase public participation in taking part in the regional level democratic party.
For this reason, the election organizers continue to make every effort to ensure that the 2024 regional elections are not just a matter for political parties (parpol) and candidate pairs (paslon), but are truly a chastisement for the entire community.
Meanwhile, another step from the General Election Commission (KPU) of Banyumas Regency to be able to increase voter participation in the 2024 Pilkada is by holding prayer events.
This activity is part of an effort to further increase community participation, especially in regional level political contestation, namely the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections using a religious approach.
With the peaceful chanting of prayers, it is hoped that it will increase public awareness of how important it is to continue to maintain national unity and unity, especially in carrying out the process of democratic celebrations at the regional level.
Likewise, the Kutai Kartanegara (Kukar) General Election Commission (KPU) gathered all the Subdistrict Election Committees (PPK) to unite their goals in increasing voter participation in the 2024 Pilkada.
KPU Kukar Commissioner, Division of Socialization, Voter Education, Community Participation and Human Resources, M Amin said that PPK has an important role in contributing to the success of regional level political contestation.
Therefore, this socialization was created specifically for those who work in sub-districts to help increase voter participation. Socialization should also be able to take place evenly, so there must be collaboration between parties.
Head of Division (Kadiv) for Human Resources (SDM) and Research and Development (R&D) of the KPU for Central Java Province (Jateng), Mey Nurlela invited all elements of society to continue to be active in participating for the success of the 2024 Pilkada.
It is very important for people to be able to exercise their right to vote when voting day arrives. Because this is a concrete means of realizing people’s sovereignty.
Because popular sovereignty has a high position in the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), the use of voting rights in a general election is one way to determine who the leader will be responsible for and carry out all the will of the people in a fair and democratic manner.
Moreover, in fact all elements of the citizenry have the same and great obligation to be able to take part in building the Indonesian nation, as one of the efforts is to actively participate in the implementation of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Election (Pilkada) because it is one of the instruments of a democratic state.
Even though voting in regional elections is actually a right, in essence citizens have a responsibility to be able to participate in determining the future direction of their nation or region.
So, by making their choice and using their voting rights, it means they have contributed to choosing a leader who will be able to manage and guide the future of the nation.
All of these things are a manifestation of society’s real responsibility as citizens who have complete sovereignty. On the other hand, there are real losses if there are still citizens who actually have the right to vote but they do not use their voices.
The real loss that will occur if this happens is the possibility of electing leaders who lack quality, and it is the same as society allowing leaders to be elected based solely on political pragmatism, one of which is money politics. In fact, it makes quality leaders fail to lead.
It is also not impossible that not using voting rights in the regional elections will lead to the potential for fraud in the general election process. Because when someone doesn’t vote, there are remaining unused ballots. This creates the potential for vote manipulation by individuals who may commit fraud.
How important it is to use the right to vote to receive continuous supervision, making the KPU strive to continuously increase political participation from all elements of society in the implementation of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections.
*) Diponegoro University Political Observer
