Observer: Solo Example Of Dark Room Recruitment Process For Regional Head Candidates

Illustration (Photo: Wokandapix from Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Researcher for the Community Concerned Parliamentary Forum (Formappi) Lucius Karus regrets that there is a dark room for the recruitment process for prospective regional head candidates (cakada) from political parties in the 2020 Pilkada.

He gave an example that this happened in the PDI Perjuangan's nomination for a regional head in Solo, Central Java. Initially, the DPC PDIP Solo echoed the name of Deputy Mayor of Solo, Achmad Purnomo, in the cakada exchange.

Later, Purnomo resigned because Gibran Rakabuming, the son of President Joko Widodo, asked for the blessing of PDIP Chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri to enter the elections in Solo.

"Talking about the quality of regional elections, it becomes difficult when there are dark spaces in political parties that have been relied on to ensure the quality of the elections' integrity," Lucius said in a virtual discussion, Friday, July 24.

"We know that our current political parties are like the political parties that produce candidates that appear in Solo. Parties like that make our hopes for the election results with integrity have dimmed from the start," he continued.

Lucius said that public focus in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic could be an opportunity for political parties to play around in the nomination process.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is a strategic opportunity for the survival of the rotten practices of buying and selling seats by political parties when determining candidates for regional head," said Lucius.

In fact, according to Lucius, the pandemic should not have made efforts to fulfill information on the nominations for regional heads covered up. Political parties, as the driving force for the implementation of the elections, should be able to present the track record and portrait of the candidates as a voter to the public.

If this has happened, then the most likely election organizers such as the KPU and Bawaslu to make sure that voters can choose wisely in the elections later.

"Efforts to ensure better voter education can provide little room to foster optimism for the emergence of quality candidates from the results of the 2020 Pilkada," said Lucius.