JAKARTA, KOMPAS – A number of political parties have started getting ready to welcome the 2018 simultaneous regional elections and the 2019 general elections. Making use of the short interval between the regional election and the general elections is the main challenge for the parties. If they are managed seriously, the elections can serve as a momentum to strengthen party institutions at all levels.
The 2018 regional elections will be held on June 27, 2018 in 171 regions. Then, on July 4-7, 2018, the parties must propose their list of legislative candidates for the House of Representatives (DPR) and the regional legislatives council (DPRD). A month later, on Aug. 4-10, 2018, the registration for presidential candidates will be open. The 2019 general elections will be held on Apr. 17, 2019.
Data from the General Election Commission (KPU) shows that in the 2014 election, about 200,000 legislative candidates competed for 560 House seats, 2,112 provincial DPRD seats and 16,895 city/regency DPRD seats, as well as 132 regional representatives council (DPD) seats. In 2019, the number of seats available will be increased slightly.
Throughout the Reform era, no party has been able to win two consecutive elections. The number of votes gained by each party has also varied considerably from one election to the next. The Democrat Party, which received 20.9 percent of votes in 2009, only received 10.2 percent of votes in 2014, while the Gerindra Party saw its votes jumping from 4.5 percent in the 2009 election to 11.8 percent in the 2014 general elections.
A Kompas research and development survey revealed that the electability of political parties had changed in 2015-2017. A party’s internal and external dynamics both affected electability.
To reinforce unity among cadres and rev up the party machine, several parties have held meetings. Last week, the Nasdem Party held a national working meeting. In December, PDI-P will hold a national coordination meeting.
Hanura Party secretary-general Sarifuddin Sudding, when contacted in Jakarta on Sunday (19/11), said that his party had finished preparing its organizational structure down to the regional level. This structure is the main machine for Hanura to contest the 2018 regional elections and the 2019 general elections.
Starting this month, Hanura will also visit several regions under its “Hanura Greeting the People” program. Sudding believes that the program, which will start in Sumatera and then move on to other regions, can increase the party’s electability while solidifying the party.
National Awakening Party (PKB) deputy treasurer Bambang Susanto said that his party would soon open a public registration for the party’s legislative candidates. “The current legislative members have the task of winning (votes) in their regions,” he said.
United Development Party (PPP) secretary-general Arsul Sani said that current legislative members at various levels who have sat two terms will be have to be reevaluated if they wished to run for reelection. “In all this time, if they have done nothing for the party, have not strengthened the party or their legislative work has not been good, they will not be nominated again,” he said.
The PPP has also opened an opportunity for members of the general public who want to become a legislative candidate. The party has targeted a composition of 60 internal candidates and 40 percent external candidates.
Institutional reinforcement
In Surabaya, Political Sciences Department head Kris Nugroho at Airlangga University said that one of the challenges for parties was preparing a party machine that could work effectively in the 2018 regional elections and the 2019 general elections. In the past, party machines have generally been ineffective and had been replaced by the candidates’ personal networks. “After nomination, it was actually the private machines of family networks and campaign teams that moved. If they want to improve the party as an institution, they must strengthen their cadres,” he said.
The 2018 regional elections and the 2019 general elections, Nugroho added, must be used to strengthen the parties as institutions. If this was not done, parties in Indonesia could experience “apparent death” – being active only during the year before the elections and not working to strengthen the organization afterwards.
The director of the University of Indonesia’s Center of Political Studies, Aditya Perdana, has seen signs from a number of parties that they are attempting to treat the 2018 regional elections and the 2019 general elections as one continuous chain. The strategy would involve, for example, creating a regional campaign team structure for the regional elections that would be more or less the same as the national campaign team for the legislative election.
According to Aditya, prospective legislative candidates in the 2019 general elections should be part of the campaign team in their respective regions in the 2018 regional elections.
(GAL/APA/BAY)
