Yogyakarta, March 28th 2024—Ahead of the Regional Head Election (Pilkada) in August 2024, both the public and political parties are once again preparing to make their choices. Election Corner Forum, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (Fisipol) UGM directly invited party representatives of the Partai Solidaritas Indonesia, Partai Gerindra, Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, and Partai Golkar on Monday (25/3) to see how far political parties have prepared for the 2024 regional elections.
“This event was held thanks to the collaboration between the DPP UGM and Tribun Jogja, where we together designed that this event was not only limited to academic needs. However, there is a need for an advocacy nature. How can the educated middle class contribute to maximizing its central role in realizing elections with integrity and dignity,” said Alfath Bagus Panuntun, Lecturer at the Department of Politics and Government, as well as the UGM Election Corner Team.
This open public lecture was held to see how political parties carry out positioning, absorb people’s aspirations, and of course fight for people’s interests. The four parties both have strong ambitions to win the Yogyakarta Special Region Pilkada. For this reason, both PSI, Gerindra, PKS, and Golkar have developed effective strategies to gain people’s votes. According to the DPD Secretary of Partai Gerindra, Nur Subiyanto, his party is very concerned about internal and external potential. Each candidate must have the potential to be linear with the characteristics of the target community.
“When we talk about strategy, of course, we talk about potential. We have internal potential, then we also map out the areas we want to master. DIY has a small population, compared to Sleman or Bantul. But maybe DIY is like DKI, like Jakarta. Even though the area is small, the population is small, it is the center,” explained Subiyanto. He added that regional elections are an important aspect for political parties because regional heads will be the ones who will execute policies from the central government.
Johannes Serang Keban, DPD Golkar DIY also conveyed Partai Golkar’s strategy for recruiting political candidates. He said that political parties are an important aspect of planning development. Therefore, Partai Golkar is quite selective in choosing candidates to advance to the 2024 regional elections. “First, we have to see whether the candidates have the same vision, mission, and perspective or not as our party in advancing a region. “That is important, not just sitting, but whether his performance aligns with the party’s strategic direction,” he explained.
Similar but not the same, Boedi Dewantara, a Member of the DIY DPRD from the PKS Fraction, said that the thing that needs to be paid attention to is the political party system itself. The selection of candidates must be carried out in a modern, balanced, and rational manner. The PKS faction needs strong and courageous candidates, to be able to make changes and fight for democracy. “So he is not just a strong person, but he can cross paths with the executive, and can make changes. If it’s in Yogyakarta, I think he has to understand what the specialty of DIY is,” said Boedi.
The role of young people in the 2024 Election has been proven to have an extraordinary influence. Deputy Chair of DPW PSI DIY, Risa Karmida, explained that the public’s attention was only focused on the president, they did not know their regional leaders. “We see that many young people are apathetic, they don’t know who they are voting for even though millennials and Gen Z will dominate. So when we talk about our political party’s strategy, we want to get closer to the community, so we can get to know the regional leaders better,” said Risa.
Nevertheless, the four-party representatives both agreed that a good Pilkada candidacy is to align the needs and interests of the community with the candidates proposed. This is a joint strategy so that development can run effectively and evenly. The hope is that the candidates proposed by the party will be regional leadership candidates who are ready and able to accommodate and execute the aspirations of the community.