Golkar, Which Apparently Hasn't Closed The Book On The 2024 Election Discourse, Is Postponed

Meeting of Airlangga and Surya Paloh (Photo courtesy of the doc)

JAKARTA - The possibility of a proposed postponement of the 2024 General Election is still trying to be echoed. The latest is the attitude of the General Chairperson of the Golkar Party, Airlangga Hartarto, asking for a meeting of all the general chairmen of political parties.

The meeting, said Airlangga, would be used to discuss the continuation of the proposed postponement of the 2024 General Election, which was first stated by PKB Chairman Muhaimin Iskandar.

Why does this need to be done even though various survey results say the public strongly opposes the suggestion that the 2024 General Election be postponed? Airlangga said Indonesia adheres to a system of deliberation and consensus.

"This needs to be discussed by consensus between party leaders. We are not a western model, but an Indonesian model, the community is for consensus, consensus is for mutual cooperation," said Airlangga after a meeting with NasDem party chairman Surya Paloh at NasDem Tower, Jakarta Center, Thursday, March 10.

Airlangga has also not explicitly stated Golkar's stance on the proposed postponement of the 2024 election, whether to reject or agree. Whereas previously Golkar considered that the proposal needed to be studied. Airlangga only emphasized that the Golkar Party accommodates the aspirations of the people if there is such a proposal.

"We must understand what is called aspiration. Aspiration should not be rejected, let alone the voice of Golkar is the voice of the people," he said.

Moreover, said Airlangga, President Joko Widodo has clearly stated that every democratic aspiration must continue to grow. This proposal is part of democracy.

"So, of course, usually in certain cases, communication between political leadership parties is important," said Airlangga.

Survey Results

The political party leaders may not have a single vote regarding the postponement of this election. However, it is better if they also want to look at the results of the survey regarding this proposal.

The Y-Publica Survey Institute released as many as 81.5 percent of the total respondents wanting the 2024 Simultaneous General Election (Pemilu) to remain on the schedule determined on February 14, 2024.

In the survey results, as many as 12.9 percent of all respondents did not mind changing the schedule for the 2024 Simultaneous Elections, while the remaining 5.6 percent said they did not know or did not answer.

The Y-Publica survey was conducted from February 24 to March 4, 2022, involving 1,200 respondents who were selected by multistage random sampling.

The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews, with a margin of error of around 2.89 percent and a confidence level of 95 percent.

The Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) Denny JA has also released the results of their survey regarding public attitudes towards the issue of postponing the 2024 General Election (Pemilu) and the addition of the presidential term. As a result, the majority of respondents rejected the issue of postponing the 2024 general election and the addition of presidential positions. LSI researcher Denny JA, Ardian Sopa even said the issue would wither before it developed.

"The majority of 2019 voters, the majority of people reject the issue of postponing the election and the issue of the president for three terms. This issue will wither before it develops, meaning it will not enter, for example, the amendment process to the 1945 Constitution because like it or not, whether we like it or not, postponing elections or adding periods must go through amendments. the 1945 Constitution," said Ardian Sopa, March 10 yesterday.

Ardian detailed that the total number of respondents who rejected the postponement of the 2023 election was 68.5 percent. Meanwhile, those who opposed the issue of adding the presidential term to three terms reached 70.3 percent.

Furthermore, LSI Denny JA also said that 65.1 percent of respondents who expressed satisfaction with the performance of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) also opposed the election discourse.

"Only 26.7 percent agreed," said Ardian.

Meanwhile, for respondents who are dissatisfied with Jokowi's performance, the percentage who oppose the postponement of the election is much larger, reaching 87.3 percent and only 6 percent agreeing.

"This means that the two discourses, namely the postponement of the 2024 election and the three-term presidential election, received quite strong resistance from the public. The resonance of the rejection of the two discourses was evenly distributed in almost all segments of the electorate," he explained.