Simplification of Election Contestants in Indonesia: #Burnsteem25 |

Socialization of participatory supervision at the Universitas Malikussaleh Campus, recently.

By @ayijufridar

The enthusiasm of political parties to welcome the 2024 General Election is reflected in the registration process for eligible participants which will take place from 1 to 14 August 2022 in accordance with KPU Regulation Number 4 of 2022 concerning Registration, Verification, and Determination of Election Contesting Political Parties. A total of 40 parties at the national level officially submitted files to the KPU until the last day (Kompas.com, 15/8/2022).

Meanwhile, in Aceh, there were seven local parties that registered themselves and six of them were declared complete and entitled to advance to the administrative and factual verification stage.

Not only new parties, old parties, and major parties are also enthusiastic about welcoming the registration stage which is the first step towards a political battle in 2024. Like a football match, each new team shows the line-up. Scoring more goals than the opponent is a goal, thankfully being able to display a beautiful game that entertains the audience (read: the people).

Each political party must have prepared itself to face the next process, namely administrative and factual verification that will determine whether or not they pass as participants in the 2024 General Election. The long administrative verification process until the announcement on October 14, 2022, provides an opportunity for political parties to complete and improve all requirements.

With a system that has been well socialized and an adequate schedule, there is a possibility that there will be more participants in the 2024 Election than in the 2019 Election, especially in Aceh with the participation of local political parties. This condition will affect the performance of the organizers and cause complications for voters.

Election contestants fluctuate

The registration of political parties has been arranged so neatly with the application of the Political Party Information System (Sipol) which has been introduced in the last few elections. Sipol is the KPU's step forward in modern administrative control, although manual registration is still needed because Sipol is intended as a tool.

In the midst of accusations that Sipol is just a formality because in the end the KPU and all of its staff continue to carry out administrative and factual verification conventionally, the existence of the application is still needed as part of reforming the modern electoral system as well as a tool for simplifying future election participants.

The number of election participants always fluctuates in each period. After the end of the era of three participants in the 1997 general election, regulatory changes made the first election of the Reformation era in 1999 followed by 48 political parties. At that time, voters and organizers at the lower levels had difficulty folding ballots. Many ballots are torn when put in the ballot box. The completely manual calculation and recapitulation system are also confusing. Coupled with a weak supervisory system, the 1999 elections were prone to fraud.

The 2004 general election, which began to be held by non-party (independent) organizers, was attended by 24 political parties, making it simpler. However, five years later the number of participants again swelled to 38 political parties. In the 2014 general election, it was reduced to 12 political parties with smaller ballot sizes. The number of participants again increased to 18 participants, including four local political parties in Aceh which only participated in the elections for members of the DPRK and DPRA.

The implementation of the parliamentary threshold in the 2009 election also affected the number of participants in the 2014 election. Likewise, in the 2019 election, the number of participants decreased to 16 national parties and 4 local parties in Aceh (www.kpu.go.id).

The number of political parties and political parties participating in the general election cannot be avoided because Indonesia adheres to a multi-party presidential system. Regulation makes the establishment of political parties easier but comes with a number of associated risks, both for the organizers and for the growth of democracy that is not yet in the orbit it should be.

Regulatory solutions

Simplification of election participants through regulatory changes has been carried out with the enactment of the parliamentary threshold of 4 percent. However, the parliamentary threshold only applies to the DPR-RI elections so that many political parties still have people's representatives in districts/cities and provinces. Political parties that do not qualify for Senayan, continue to grow in the regions and color the growth of democracy in Indonesia.

After getting approval to become a political party, becoming a participant in the election is another struggle that must be done. Each party must at least have management in a number of provinces and districts/cities. Verification carried out by KPU/KIP elements, which are supervised by Bawaslu and the wider community, determines the fate of a party to becoming an election contestant. Getting a seat and passing the parliamentary threshold is the next uphill battle.

Got a lot of votes in certain constituencies but did not pass the threshold, just like the Indonesian national team which won big in the group stage at the recent AFF Cup, failed to advance to the semifinals due to head-to-head defeats to Thailand and Vietnam, recently.

A large number of election participants has broad implications that are not in direct contact with the quality of democracy. Steps to simplify the number of election participants must be carried out from now on because they are directly related to election designs that are easier, faster, scalable, and able to reduce costs. Democracy does require high costs, but simplification of the system and election participants is a necessity.

The parliamentary threshold of 4 percent does not dampen the enthusiasm of politicians to establish parties. If participating in the general election since the end of the three-party era since the 1999 election (followed by 48 parties), there is uniformity. Political parties are born and die with faces that are not much different. The platforms and programs are not much different, even the cases involving politicians are the same.

Increasing the parliamentary threshold and its application to the regions is one of the long-term solutions that need to be considered. This choice is not to kill small parties, but to increase the professionalism of election participants and improve the quality of elections in Indonesia.

System fix

The fluctuation of election participants is not too surprising because new political parties are generally formed by old players who leave the old political parties due to various problems such as losing the general chairman election, there is friction in support for the presidential/vice-presidential candidate pair, or different support in the local election (pilkada in Bahasa).

A split within a political party will give birth to a new political party with a platform that is not much different. Conflict resolution by leaving and establishing new political parties has become a trend in Indonesian politics. There were fragments of political parties that later succeeded, but not a few who failed and then established new political parties in the next election. So the cycle continues.

KPU can give birth to a simpler PKPU for election participants without violating the above regulations. Election participants who have reached the threshold in the previous election, do not need to submit files and simply register through the Sipol application. They should immediately become election participants automatically without having to start from scratch.

Likewise, the serial numbers of election participants change every election. Political parties that pass automatically as participants because they reached the threshold of the previous election, can use the old serial numbers, of course with slight adjustments so that the number of election participants remains sequential and takes into account the presence of local parties in Aceh.

The public certainly still remembers the many election organizers who died in the 2019 election, another tragedy in the dark history of Indonesian democracy. Organizers were exhausted due to a large number of ballots, voters, and forms they had to fill out in a limited time. The gray election should not be repeated again. Simplifying the number of election participants is the first step toward simplifying the electoral system in Indonesia.[]

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_Become a resource person for the Aceh Province Bawaslu event.)