Short Campaign Duration Makes New Players Must Work Hard

Illustration (Photo by Damiano Lingauri on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Commissioner of the General Elections Commission of the Republic of Indonesia (KPU RI) Pramono U. Tanthowi reminded election participants and new candidates that they need a longer campaign period for the 2024 Simultaneous General Election and Pilkada.

"They have to start from scratch to introduce themselves, introduce their new numbers, offer new visions, missions, and programs, and persuade voters to vote for themselves in elections," Pramono said as quoted by Antara, Friday, February 4.

Pramono said that when giving a presentation at a national seminar entitled 'The 2024 Campaign Period Is Shortened: Who Profits, Who Loses?' which is broadcast on the Initiative Code YouTube channel.

Election contestants and new candidates need more time to increase their popularity, the level of people's likes (likeability), and the level of electability.

On the other hand, old political parties, old candidates, and old legislative candidates do not need to start from scratch because people tend to already know and know them. Therefore, election participants and old candidates need a shorter campaign period.

"Long or short campaign period will influence voters to know, like or dislike, then make their choice," said Pramono continued.

Thus, regarding reducing the duration of the campaign to be shorter, from 120 days to 90 days, election organizers must pay attention to the context of election justice, such as equality among election participants.

"We have tried hard to accommodate proposals from political party friends and the government to reduce the duration of the campaign period. We have reduced it to 120 days, that is a very large reduction," he said.

In carrying out these reductions, Pramono said that his party risked the work that would be the burden of the KPU, especially related to the procurement of production auctions and logistics distribution.

In 2019, with a campaign period of 6 months and 3 weeks, he revealed that there were thousands of polling stations (TPS) whose ballots or ballot boxes did not arrive on the D day. This delay resulted in a follow-up election being held at a later date.

"This is our bet," said Pramono.