The Long Work of the Party Machine Begins

KOMPAS/WISNU WIDIANTORO

A wide banner bearing the logos of political parties contesting the 2019 general elections is displayed on Saturday (25/8/2018) along the fence surrounding the Jakarta headquarters of the General Elections Commission (KPU). The KPU is to issue by September a list of verified candidates from each political party participating in the election. Many voters are hoping that legislative candidates in the election are free from corruption, drug crimes and child sexual abuse as per the KPU regulation.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The current configuration of political party electability has not changed much compared to the results of the 2019 General Election. The approximately three years remaining until the 2024 General Election provide an opportunity for political parties to move their engines to attract the public through real performance in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The long work of the party machine must start early.

Based on a Kompas R&D survey from April 13 to 26, the three political parties with the highest electability are the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P, 22.6 percent), the Gerindra Party (10.5 percent) and the Golkar Party (8.6 percent). The positions of the three political parties are similar to the results of the 2019 Legislative Election. In addition, three more political parties have passed the 4 percent legislative threshold, namely the Democratic Party (7 percent), the National Awakening Party (7 percent), and the Prosperous Justice Party (5.4 percent). However, 27.6 percent of respondents did not answer.

Also read: Political Parties Going Nowhere

The executive director of the Center for Political Studies at the University of Indonesia, Aditya Perdana, said in Jakarta on Tuesday (4/5/2021) that the high number of voters who declined to answer could be caused by the fact that the 2024 general election was considered a long way away. The limited space for movement during the COVID-19 pandemic has also made the parties less visible to voters. In addition, voters may also have not seen the real work of political parties in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and so may not have made a choice.

ANTARA FOTO/SIGID KURNIAWAN

NETGRIT senior researcher Hadar Nafis Gumay shows the spreading of former graft convicts in political parties who have been approved by the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) to contest elections during a discussion at the Indonesia Corruption Watch office in Jakarta on Sunday (9/9/2018). The discussion was themed "Polemic of the Former Corruption Convicts: Between Parties\' Commitment and Rulings of the Supreme Court.

However, there are still three years left before the 2024 General Election. Political parties, he said, could take advantage of that time by mobilizing all their power to attract voters who had not made their choice or to influence other political party voters to vote for them in 2024.

"One thing that is important is that prior to the 2024 General Election, there will be no regional elections. This means that their long work can start now," said Aditya.

Eliciting public sympathy

The deputy chairman of the Gerindra Party, Habiburokhman, said that almost all surveys indicated that Gerindra was in second or third position. In fact, he said, ideally the electability of Gerindra was parallel to the electability of Prabowo Subianto as General Chair of Gerindra. However, in reality, Gerindra\'s electability has not caught up with Prabowo.

Also read: Breaking the Chain of Political Vulgarization

A Kompas R&D survey related to the electability of presidential candidates conducted in April showed that Prabowo\'s electability was 16.4 percent. The results of the survey, said Habiburokhman, would serve as an evaluation as well as a reminder for the party to continue to build its support more systematically.

"We still have time to make improvements for 2024. We are targeting that in 2024 we can win the most seats," said Habiburokhman.

Meanwhile, PDI-P secretary general Hasto Kristiyanto said, when comparing between the Kompas R&D survey in April and the votes garnered in the 2019 Legislative Election, PDI-P\'s electability had risen significantly, by around 3.3 percent.

The increase, he said, was proof that people appreciated the party’s moves in the midst of the pandemic.

According to Hasto, the increase in the PDI-P\'s electability would cause the party to move further and unite with the people. The increase, he said, was proof that people appreciated the party’s moves in the midst of the pandemic.

Hasto added that the PDI-P realized that the synergy of three pillars, namely structural, legislative and executive, greatly affected the electability of the party. The mutual cooperation of the three pillars also showed the ideal face of the political party, which did not only manage government and state power but also competed to provide benefits for the people.

KOMPAS/WISNU WIDIANTORO

Joko widodo (sixth left) and Maaruf Amin (fifth right) pose with the leaders of the nine political parties backing their campaign after the pair registered on 10 Aug. 2018 as candidates of the 2019 presidential election at the General Elections Commission in Jakarta.

Separately, the head of strategic communication for the Democratic Party\'s Central Executive Board (DPP), Herzaky Mahendra Putra, said the increase in the electability of his political party was inseparable from the real work of the Democratic Party in the previous year, including fighting for the aspirations of the people in the House of Representatives and helping people affected by the pandemic and other disasters. He said the recent Democratic leadership takeover movement had also sparked public sympathy.

The Constitutional Court\'s verdict

The Constitutional Court (MK) recently decided that political parties that had passed the parliamentary threshold in the general election only needed to take part in administrative verification to become participants in the next election. Administrative verification and factual verification only apply to political parties that have not passed the threshold and new political parties.

Also read: Testing the Appeal of Political Parties

Political parties that do not pass or do not meet the provisions of the legislative threshold include parties that only have representation at the provincial, regency or city level.

The verdict was read out by the Constitutional Court judges after the judicial review of Article 173 Paragraph 1 of Law No. 7/2017 on general elections proposed by the Movement for Change Party.

Three of the nine justices of the Constitutional Court, namely Saldi Isra, Suhartoyo and Enny Nurbaningsih, had dissenting opinions. Saldi said that the petition was intended to render Constitutional Court Verdict No. 53/PUU-XV/2017 illegitimate for the same substance.

ANTARA FOTO/RAHMAD

Officers of the Secretariat of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP) of North Aceh compile verification documents of the legislative candidates at the secretariat on Saturday (21/7/2018). Based on the verification results, out of the 672 administrative documents submitted by candidates for the North Aceh Regency Legislative Council, who are supported by 19 local and national political parties, about 40 percent were sent back due to incomplete files.

A member of the Board of Trustees for General Elections and Democracy, Titi Anggraini, said the latest decision by the Constitutional Court provided benefits for political parties that had seats in the House because, so far, the hardest part for political parties when they wanted to participate in elections was when they underwent factual verification. ( SYA/BOW/ANA/DEA)

(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo)