Efforts To Realize A Compensive And Peaceful 2024 Election In Depok City

The 2024 General Election (election) in Depok City is a crucial momentum in realizing a polite and peaceful atmosphere. Depok residents are expected to be able to overcome differences and conflicts in a peaceful way through deliberation, as well as avoid violence and riots.

This was conveyed by Prof. Dr. Maswadi Rauf, MA, in the Peace Election Discussion Forum with the theme "Building a Statuent and Ethical Political Culture Towards Elections and Peaceful Pilkadas in Depok," which was held on Thursday, August 10.

Prof. Maswadi, a professor of Political Sciences from FISIP UI, explained, "Democracy encourages freedom, so that elections are held to provide opportunities for individuals to compete freely in order to gain voter support and occupy government positions. Therefore, it is natural that elections are always colored with tension and competition."

However, according to him, good rules are not enough if politicians do not have the ability to resolve conflicts peacefully. Without this capability, elections will continue to be a place of tension and unrest. To prevent this, politicians and candidates participating in the Election are required to maintain an attitude and not be involved in black campaigns that spread false information about political opponents.

"If the programs promoted are not only attractive but also avoid attacking political opponents, then a polite and peaceful election can be realized," said Maswadi. He emphasized the importance of politicians and election candidates to control their success teams so as not to take actions that are contrary to democratic values.

The Damai Election Discussion Forum was organized by the Depok City National Unity and Political Agency (Bakesbangpol) as part of the celebration of the 78th Republic of Indonesia's Independence Day. This event was attended by the Mayor of Depok, Dr. KH. Mohammad Idris, MA, and Dr. Bahtiar M.Si, Director General of Politics and General Government of the Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs, who became the mainnote speaker. The discussion was guided by the presenter of Kompas TV, Bayu Sutiyono.

Other speakers, Abdul Ghofur, SS. M.Si, in this forum invited the participants consisting of the Head of the Depok City Regional Apparatus Organization (OPD), representatives of political parties, members of the Depok FKUB, representatives of the Depok Forkopimda, KPU, Bawaslu, and community leaders, to understand deeply about the holding of the 2024 simultaneous elections and elections.

Ghofur emphasized the importance of designing strategies to build a polite and ethical political culture in order to realize peaceful elections and elections in Depok City. He proposed steps such as building a peace infrastructure, mobilizing peaceful agents through social media, and carrying out a campaign for peaceful elections in a sustainable manner.

In his presentation, Ghofur reviewed the preliminary evaluation (Ex Ante) of holding elections and simultaneous elections in 2024. He highlighted crucial issues including the readiness of the organizers, the complexity of the excellent organizing tasks, the potential for economic downturn in 2023-2024, and the high risk of money politics practices.

Ghofur explained, "The 2024 Simultaneous Elections and Elections have significant technical challenges because they are carried out in the same year, so that the stages are interrelated. Therefore, careful contingency planning and risk management are needed."