All The Elections For The 2024 Regional Head Election: Empty Box Victory, Low Participation Rate, And Dharma-Kun Voice Surge

The atmosphere of the vote counting of the DKI Jakarta Pilkada at TPS 021 Sungai Bambu Village, Tanjung Priok District, North Jakarta, Wednesday (27/11/2024). (ANTARA/Ardianus M)

JAKARTA In addition to the surprise in the results of the quick count in several regions, low voter participation also colored the 2024 Regional Head Election or Regional Head Election. Not only that, this year's regional head election also recorded an empty box victory in Pangkalpinang City, Riau Islands.

The 2024 regional elections were held on 27 November. However, regional head elections held simultaneously in 545 regions include 37 provinces, 415 districts, and 93 cities leaving the story. According to a number of observers, the victory of the Andra Soni-Dimyati Natakusumah pair over Airin Rachmi Diany-Ade Sumardi in Banten is an anomaly.

But the Pilkada story is not only in Banten. In Pangkalpinang City, for example, empty boxes won victory against Maulan Aklil-Masangus Hakim's single candidate. In addition, low voter participation is also a concern.

A number of observers say that voter participation is low, such as in Jakarta, for example, because there are no candidates who represent the community so they choose not to vote.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, acknowledged that the voter participation rate in the Jakarta Regional Elections has declined and will be an evaluation. However, he admitted that this situation did not only occur in Jakarta. Dasco said, several other areas experienced a decline in voter participation due to several reasons, for example, weather factors.

"Because of the weather, especially heavy rain and others. So that voter participation fell, such as in Batam, monitoring, Riau Islands, for example, it was very heavy rain," said Dasco.

Meanwhile, a public policy observer from Trisakti Rahadiansyah University said that the decline in the level of voter participation in the Jakarta Pilkada was due to the figure who was presented at the five-year democratic party, not the person expected by the public following the collapse of Anies Baswedan's plan to advance.

Based on a number of information, there are only 4.3 million valid votes out of a total of 8.2 million permanent voters (DPT) or only 53.05 percent in the Jakarta gubernatorial election. This is in line with the quick count or quick count of Indonesian Political Indicators which states that the voter participation rate in the area is only around 57.73 percent.

During the 2024 General Election (Pemilu), the figure is still high. Data from the General Election Commission (KPU) of the Jakarta Province stated that participation in the Presidential Election (Pilpres) in the Jakarta area reached 78.78 percent, for the election of the DPR RI it reached 77.57 percent, the selection of DPD RI reached 77.65 percent, and for the election of the Provincial DPRD it reached 77.46 percent.

The participation rate for the Jakarta gubernatorial election is also the lowest during its implementation. In 2007, the participation rate of the gubernatorial election reached 65 percent, then the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election was around 65 percent, and finally in 2017 the figure still jumped to 78 percent.

The low voter participation rate does not only occur in Jakarta, but also in other areas. In North Sumatra, only 55.6 percent of the election participation is in North Sumatra. There are two candidate pairs fighting in North Sumatra, namely Bobby Nasution-Surya and Edy Rahmayadi-Hasan Basri All.

KPU commissioner Idham Kholik emphasized that he would conduct an evaluation regarding the low level of election participation, which on average did not reach 70 percent. But he refused that his party would be the only person responsible for this phenomenon. according to Idham, political parties should also be responsible because the KPU has tried their best to carry out socialization and education to the public.

University of Indonesia's electoral law expert Titi Anggraini considers this phenomenon to be caused by several things. First, people feel tired or tired due to national elections and regional elections held simultaneously in this year. This fatigue, according to Titi, is not only felt by voters but also in election organizers, even political parties.

Second, related to the centralistic nomination of regional heads in the hands of the central board of political parties. This causes many candidates to be inconsistent with regional aspirations and more reflect the tastes of the national political elite.

"This is what makes the party engine not work in a number of regions in carrying out winning campaigns for the candidates it carries," explained Titi.

Regarding regional head candidates who do not comply with the wishes of the residents, public policy observer Trisakti University Trubus Rahadiansyah agrees. He said the decline in the level of voter participation in the Jakarta Regional Elections was because the developed figure was not the person expected by the public.

For example, Jakarta residents, said Trubus, still regret the failure of Anies Baswedan to run in the regional elections following the various events that occurred in the political world before the party announced their candidate.

"What Jakarta voters expect, if not Anies, is Ahok (Basuki Tjahaja Purnama). Indeed, the figures chosen are not representing the wishes of the people of Jakarta. Because the ones competing are not the ones expected," said Trubus.

Selain warga yang kurangsreg dengan mereka yang bertarung di pilkada, Trubus juga menyebut masyarakat sudah tidak terlalu enthusiastically menyalurkan hak pilih karena merasa tidak ada perubahan signifikan dalam kehidupan mereka sehingga tidak berdampak langsung pada warga.

"This means that people think that it is only a five-year routine," he added.

In the 2024 Jakarta Pilkada, there are three pairs of candidates running to become governors and deputy governors, namely Ridwan Kamil-Suswono who were promoted by the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM) Plus, independent candidates Dharma Pongrekun-Kun Wardana, and Pramono Anung-Rano Karno who were promoted by the PDI-P (PDIP).

The absence of candidates for regional heads of the people's choice is also said to be one of the causes of the soaring number achieved by candidate pair number two, Dharma-Kun, which according to a number of survey institutions quickly reached 10 percent.

Whereas when the electability survey was released before the election, this candidate pair was predicted to get no more than five percent of the votes.

Actually, it's not too surprising that Dharma-Kun got 10 percent, even though in surveys they only got 5 percent. It could be that the voting that is still very large in the end chose this couple," said political observer from Al Azhar University Indonesia Andriadi Achmad to VOI.

Meanwhile, what was no less surprising was the victory of the empty box in the election of the Mayor of Pangkalpinang against the incumbent Maulan Aklil who was paired with Masagus Hakim. According to the 2024 regional election website.kpu.go.id, the empty box managed to get 57.98 percent or 48,528 votes, while Maulan-Masagus received 42.02 percent or 35.177 votes.

The empty box also won in two other areas according to the preliminary quick count results, namely Bangka Regency, where the Mulkan-Ramardian pair got 43 percent of the votes while the empty box was 57 percent of the vote. Meanwhile and Banjarbaru City, South Kalimantan was marked by the high number of invalid votes in a number of polling stations. This happened after the KPU eliminated the empty box mechanism for disqualifying candidate pair Aditya Mufti-Said Abdullah for administrative violations.

However, during the voting, the Erna Lisa Halaby-Wartono pair only got 43 percent of the votes, while invalid votes reached 57 percent of the votes.

Previously, the empty box had also won from the single candidate pair in the 2018 Makassar City Pilkada. The pair Munafri Arifuddin-Andi Rahmatika Dewi had to admit that the advantage of the empty box after the other candidate pairs, which were incumbents and advanced through an independent route, namely Danny Pomanto-Indira Mulyasari, was crossed out by the KPU.

A political observer from Bangka Belitting University Ariandi A Zulkarnain said the victory of the empty box was a tangible manifestation of public resistance to the political elite.

"For the volunteers, this empty column (empty box) is the people's victory, this is an effort to reclaim democracy in Pangkalpinang from the elite process that occurred," said Ariandi, quoting Tempo.

"They feel that no one should feel more dominant in the democratic process so they must provide opportunities or space to other political opponents. People think this is a form of community resistance," he added.

He hopes that if the empty box is later declared victorious in the 2024 Pilkada, it can be evaluated for political parties to create a new coalition and no longer refer to one of the sole candidates.