The 2020 regional elections (Pilkada) went smoothly. Appreciation should be given to people who spearheaded the event.
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Editor
·3 minutes read
The 2020 regional elections (Pilkada) went smoothly. Appreciation should be given to people who spearheaded the event.
Despite the threat of the coronavirus, poll workers ensured that citizens were able to exercise their right to vote. They even visited voters who were in self-isolation suffering from the coronavirus, so voters could exercise their voting right. Their spirit, as well as the spirit of witnesses from competing parties and law enforcement officers were crucial in securing the safety of the democratic process – deserving a thumbs up.
Appreciation should also be given to the people who voted in the regional elections despite the threat of COVID-19. Respect should also be given to voters who decided not to participate because of the pandemic or for other reasons.
The pandemic was predicted to cause a fall in voter turnout. However, General Elections Commis-sion (KPU) chairman Arief Budiman targeted a 70 percent voter turnout. In the 2015 regional elec-tions, voter turnout was 69 percent. Then, it increased to 74.5 percent in 2017 regional election be-fore falling to 73.2 percent in the 2018 regional election.
While the regional elections ran smoothly, there are some issues that need to be evaluated, such as uncontested races in 25 regions. The number of uncontested races with single candidates has kept increasing, from three regions in the 2015 regional election to nine regions in the 2017 regional elec-tion, then to 16 regions in the 2018 regional election.
Law No. 10/2016 concerning regional elections opens the opportunity for uncontested races. There is a tendency for uncontested races originally designed to avoid political deadlock to be used to facil-itate political pragmatism, specifically to secure the winning of a political party-supported candidate.
Another issue is political dynasties. We should respect the political rights of political elite families. There are also political dynasties in other countries such as the Bush and Kennedy families in the United States, the Gandhis in India and the Bhuttos in Pakistan. History records that political dynas-ties are capable of nurturing brilliant politicians who are highly committed to the country.
Nevertheless, it takes time to nurture brilliant politicians. Usually, they obtain an excellent educa-tion, forged and nurtured by living with the society, as well as beginning their political career from the bottom of the ladder.
We should prepare for the possibility of a surge in new COVID-19 cases within the next few days caused by increasing mo-bility during the latest regional election.
While waiting for the official result of the 2020 regional elections and evaluating it, political elites and society as a whole must return their attention to COVID-19 mitigation. We should prepare for the possibility of a surge in new COVID-19 cases within the next few days caused by increasing mo-bility during the latest regional election.
COVID-19 mitigation will be the first test to evaluate the decision to hold simultaneous regional elec-tions amid the pandemic. At that time, one of the reasons to hold simultaneous regional elections was giving the public an opportunity to choose local leaders with strong legitimacy to fight the pan-demic. The next few days will be the moment of truth for this line of reasoning.