Riau-Sumut BEM Alliance Invites Students And Young Generations To Use Their Voice Rights In The 2024 Election

Illustration of simultaneous 2024 General Elections (Pemilu) which includes the Presidential Election (Pilpres) and the Legislatig Election (Pileg). (Between)

PEKANBARU - Alliance of Student Executive Boards (BEM) throughout Riau and throughout North Sumatra (North Sumatra) invites the public not to abstain and exercise their voting rights during the 2024 election voting tomorrow, February 14.

They also invited students to choose and oversee the vote at the nearest 2024 Election Voting Station (TPS) as a form of responsibility for the younger generation in maintaining democracy.

"Students are expected not to get involved because youth play a big role as a determinant in the democratic process," said the Chairperson of the BEM of Muhammadiyah University Riau (UMRI) as well as the Chair of BEM throughout Riau, Alfikri in an event with the theme 'Students Come to TPS!' in a statement, Tuesday, February 13.

On the same occasion, the Chairperson of the Riau School of Information and Computer Management (STIAMIK) BEM, Ikhsan, also expressed his same hope for the 2024 General Election.

"We urge students to take part in the election and not to get involved," said Ikhsan.

Meanwhile, in the same event in Medan, the Lecturer of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (Fisip) of North Sumatra University (USU) Ibnu A Matondang emphasized the importance of rationality in his election and was not trapped by differences of opinion.

Ibnu said that division is something that is natural, but must be faced with maturity.

"Students must be rational, do not make division a differentiator. Do not be trapped by division," said Ibnu.

The student president of the Medan State University (Unimed) 2023 Ahmad Dani Lubis added that there are differences among students in criticizing and choosing a reasonable leader candidate. However, he stressed the importance of creating a peaceful atmosphere and calling for students not to get caught up in unproductive debates.

"There is no need to debate one of the Paslon. Just make our choices, don't argue with other people's choices in order to create maturity," he said.

The activity, which was held on Monday, February 12, was intended to invite students and the public, especially young voters, to come to vote at the TPS in the upcoming 2024 election.

Some of the important points conveyed by the speaker include inviting the public, especially young voters not to abstain and coming to voting at the polling station, creating a conducive and peaceful election atmosphere by respecting and respecting the differences in political choices of each individual, returning the role of the campus as a public space in the community and rejecting campus politicization for certain political interests and dividing, supporting presidential and vice-presidential candidates elected as the nation's best son, inviting students and the public to be wise in filtering information related to elections.

This activity is expected to motivate young voters to actively participate in the 2024 election democracy party, while creating a conducive atmosphere for holding elections with integrity.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) is known to have determined the National List of Permanent Voters (DPT) for the 2024 General Election for 204,807,222 people. Of that number, 52 percent of them are young voters.

In detail, voters aged 17 years were 0.003 percent or around 6 thousand people. Then voters with an age range of 17 years to 30 years reached 31.23 percent or around 63.9 million people. Then followed by Voters with 31 years to 40 years as many as 20.70 percent or around 42.395 million people.

Meanwhile, voter participation in the 2019 Election in Indonesia recorded a fairly high number. The presence of voters reached 158,012,506 people, with a percentage participation of around 81.97 percent. This indicates the high enthusiasm of the community to be involved in the democratic process.