PDIP Deploys 120,000 Witnesses In Simultaneous Pilkada

JAKARTA - As many as 120,000 witnesses will be deployed by the PDI Perjuangan in the implementation of the regional head elections (pilkada) simultaneously on 9 December.

Deputy Secretary General and Head of the National Election Witnesses Body (BSPN) of the PDI-P DPP, Arif Wibowo, said this was proof of the party's seriousness in the regional elections.

"This is our serious commitment to winning the elections. Later, of the 4,500 witness trainers, they will train up to 120,000 witnesses, not yet guraklih (voter mobilization team), which is three times our number of witnesses," said Arif. August 10.

In addition to being equipped with qualified witnesses related to elections, he said they were also part of a strategy to grow the party.

According to him, the requirement for witnesses to be party members is that some of the witnesses to be recruited will become new party members.

"So this activity not only strengthens capabilities, but also recruits witnesses and recruits new party members," he said.

The PDI-P DPP, he said, chose not to play much on social media, his party decided to seriously prepare its structural strength in winning regional head candidates in the 2020 Pilkada simultaneously.

He stated that while the party was preparing to reduce candidate pairs in the 2020 Pilkada, it was also preparing for a win.

So, he continued, when President Joko Widodo's son, Gibran Rakabuming, and other candidates for regional head were approved as candidates for regional head, the party winning engine was also hot.

"We have just completed a tiered witness trainer training. So the training of trainers, cadres who become witness trainers at the provincial level, have just finished being trained at the national level," said Wibowo.

There are 187 national level trainers, training was carried out for six waves due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Usually, training is held only once, but due to strict health protocols, training is forced to be carried out in six batches.

"Those who have passed this training will later train witness trainers at the district and city level. The total nationally to the regions will number around 4,500 people," he said.

Apart from that, he said, the witness trainers and witnesses would play a role in recruiting and mobilizing the voter mobilization team (guraklih). All of them are equipped with abilities to adapt to the Covid-19 pandemic situation which requires new methods according to health protocols.

The importance of this voter mobilization team, according to him, is because they predict that the level of public apathy for the 2020 simultaneous regional elections will increase. Especially in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, people tend to be more concerned with efforts to improve their economic capacity.

PDI Perjuangan has announced 93 regional head candidate pairs in two waves which have been implemented since February 2020.

According to the plan, PDI Perjuangan will again hold an announcement of the candidate for regional head of wave III, on Tuesday (11/8).