Observer: Involvement Of Children Of Presidential Candidates Becomes A Strategy To Attract Young Voters

Illustration of young voters (Between)

Political observer at Padjadjaran University, Caroline Paskarina, assessed that the involvement of children from each pair of vice presidential and vice presidential candidates became a strategy to attract young voters in the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres).

Caroline refers to the presence of the daughter of presidential candidate number 1 Anies Baswedan, Mutiara Annisa Baswedan and the son of presidential candidate number 3 Ganjar Pranowo, Muhammad Zinedine Alam Ganjar during the 2024 presidential election campaign.

"The involvement of these prospective pairs of children seems to be a strategy to approach young voters," Caroline said when contacted from Jakarta, Tuesday.

However, according to him, this strategy will be effective if the child of the presidential and vice-presidential candidate pair can listen to the aspirations of young voters.

"This strategy will be effective if there is a dialogue space between the children of the candidate pairs and the prospective voters, and not just highlighting the personal matters of the children of the candidate pairs," he said.

He also reminded that every aspiration must be heard so that young voters do not only become objects that seem to be adequately represented physically.

"The presence of young voters in the largest proportion of voters must also contribute significantly in voicing their aspirations, so there needs to be channels to hear the aspirations of young voters and have a dialogue with them," he said.

Meanwhile, he said that campaign strategies directly or indirectly, such as on social media, could increase voter participation in the 2024 presidential election by paying attention to several things.

"The offline and online campaign strategy through social media will be able to encourage voter participation if the message conveyed is relevant to public aspirations. In addition, voter character is also an important point that must be considered by candidate pairs so that their campaign strategy is effective," he said.

However, he considered that until the 28th day of the campaign period (25/12), each pair of candidates had not fully attempted to increase voter participation. According to him, the three candidates still tend to campaign to increase popularity and electability only.

"Therefore, joint efforts from election organizers are needed to encourage smart voter participation," said Caroline.

Based on the Decree of the General Elections Commission (KPU) Number 857 of 2023 concerning the Determination of the Recapitulation of the National Fixed Voter List in the Implementation of General Elections, the number of permanent voters (DPT) in the 2024 General Election is 204,807,222 voters.

Meanwhile, voters aged 17 to 30 years were 63,953,031 people, while voters under the age of 17 who could choose because they were married were 6,697 people.

The Indonesian KPU has determined three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates to participate in the 2024 presidential election. The results of the draw and determination of the serial number of participants in the 2024 presidential election determined the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar pair number 1, Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka number 2, and Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud Md. serial number 3.

The KPU has also set a campaign period from November 28, 2023 to February 10, 2024, while the voting schedule is on February 14, 2024.