Commitment to holding a peaceful general election in 2019 was underlined by political party leaders during the drawing of candidate numbers.
By
·4 minutes read
Kompas/Alif Ichwan
A mounted banner shows the results of a survey by polling agency Poltracking Indonesia indicating the two potential candidates with the highest electability in the 2019 presidential election, President Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto. The survey’s result was announced on Sunday (18/2) in an event attended by (left to right) Gerindra Party deputy chair Fadli Zon, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Maruarar Sirait, House of Representatives Speaker Bambang Soesatyo and Democrat Party lawmaker Roy Suryo.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Commitment to holding a peaceful general election in 2019 was underlined by political party leaders during the drawing of candidate numbers for the 2019 elections on Sunday at the General Elections Commission (KPU) in Jakarta.
Aside from stating their commitment, several political parties also immediately outlined steps to disseminate information to the public about the numbers picked, despite the campaign period only kicking off in September. At the same time, the outcomes of several surveys regarding the presidential and vice presidential candidates were also released.
Present at the KPU plenary meeting were nearly all leaders of the political parties that would contest the 2019 elections. They were PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, Golkar Party chairman Airlangga Hartarto and Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto. During her speech after the drawing, Megawati said holding elections were a part of democracy.
“Let the people vote peacefully. There are many problems that we face today. So, there is no need to create more by using issues related to ethnicity, religion, race and social group [SARA]. This is for the sake of people’s welfare and national unity,” Megawati said.
Similar views were expressed by United Development Party (PPP) chairman Romahurmuziy. “We call on all political leaders to avoid hate speech, cursing, defamation and slander. Let us hold a fair general election that stresses togetherness amid our differences,” he said.
He said young voters, or those below 40 years old, were expected to make up 39 percent of the vote in the 2019 general election. It is the task of political parties to provide that segment with political education.
Prabowo said democracy was the best system. Therefore, democracy in the general election must be implemented well.
Chairman of the Democratic Party’s task force for the 2019 election chairman, Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, said the will to win the election must not divide the nation. “Do not sell the unity of the unitary republic of Indonesia for a short-term political transaction,” he said.
Familiarization
After the drawing of the election numbers, Golkar Party deputy secretary-general Sarmuji said his party would instruct executive branches at the provincial and regency levels to inform voters of the party’s election number.
“The familiarization must be carried out as soon as possible. The party’s election number is different from its number in the past election,” he said.
PPP deputy secretary-general Achmad Baidowi said his party would also move the party machine to socialize the election number to the public. “The PPP aims to realize its target of being in the top three [of parties to win the largest amount of votes in the 2019 election],” he said.
He said he hoped the familiarization efforts would not be hampered by the election organizer over allegations that it was a political campaign. The definition of a campaign is already clear in laws. There is the component of presentation of vision, mission and programs. So, if it is only socialization of the election number, it is not a campaign and it is allowed to do it before the campaign period.
Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) Raja Juli Antoni said the familiarization of election numbers would also be conducted by the PSI. Early familiarization is crucial because the PSI is a newcomer in the 2019 election. Aside from face-to-face familiarization, the PSI is also employing a social media team.
Meanwhile, several surveys regarding the presidential and vice presidential candidates have also been released. According to a Poltracking Indonesia survey, released yesterday, the contestation in the 2019 general election would potentially repeat the contestation of the 2014 election. Currently, only Prabowo has the capacity to challenge President Joko Widodo.
Through an open-question survey, in which the respondents were free to pick their own candidate, Jokowi had an electability of 45.4 percent while Prabowo trailed in second place with 19.8 percent. The electability of other political leaders is below 1 percent.
Then, through a semi open-question survey, in which respondents picked 30 presidential candidates, Jokowi’s electability stood at 51.1 percent, while Prabowo 26.1 percent. Meanwhile, 28 other names failed to reach 2 percent electability.
Poltracking Indonesia executive director Hanta Yuda said Jokowi and Prabowo were the two strongest contenders in the 2019 presidential election. “Prabowo will remain the strongest contender for Jokowi with an electability gap of around 10-20 percent while Jokowi’s electability is too dominant compared to other figures,” he said.
The results of Poltracking Indonesia’s survey are not too different from surveys by other pollsters, such as Indo Barometer. However, in its release, Indo Barometer executive director M Qodari said Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan could become the dark horse in the 2019 presidential election.
