For PDIP DKI, The 2024 Pilkada Campaign Period Is Shortened Not To Be A Problem

PDI-P mass convoy (PDIP) in Jakarta on Thursday, June 25, 2020. (Between Andi Firdaus)

JAKARTA - Secretary of the DKI Jakarta PDIP Regional Leadership Council (DPD) Gembong Warsono views that the discourse on changing the 2024 Pilkada campaign schedule which shortens the campaign period for regional head candidates is not a problem.

PDIP DKI Jakarta, according to Gembong, is ready to carry out the campaign period for the candidate for the Governor of DKI Jakarta for 30 days if the government and the DPR have made the decision.

"The matter of time is also relative. For me, the duration of the election campaign period for 30 days is not a problem," said Gembong to reporters, Friday, September 22.

Gembong also has no problem with the growing assumption that the shortened regional election campaign period benefits incumbents or candidates who have served as regional heads for the previous period.

Moreover, in the implementation of the 2024 Pilkada, Jakarta does not have incumbents. Given, former DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan is now running as a presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

Thus, the capital needed for the future candidates for Governor and Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta is their understanding of city problems and ideas to solve them. Although, until now PDIP has not determined who will be promoted in the 2024 DKI Pilkada.

"The important thing is what is the problem with Jakarta. For candidates who will progress, they will definitely understand the problem. They will convey the idea of how to solve the Jakarta problem, especially after not becoming the nation's capital," explained Gembong.

"The most important thing is that we use the 30 days as much as possible for the prospective candidate who will advance in DKI to compete with ideas. If he understands the control over Jakarta issues, it's also not a problem," he continued.

The discourse on changing the schedule for the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Elections has recently surfaced because there is an assumption that the vote in November is considered not in accordance with the initial design of simultaneous regional elections.

The government also proposed the issuance of government regulations in lieu of the 2024 Pilkada (perppu) law. Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian said the urgency of the Pilkada Perppu was because there was a vacancy in the rules for the inauguration of the 2024 Pilkada and anticipating the vacancy of regional heads.

The regional head resulting from the 2020 Pilkada and the temporary acting regional head will expire on December 31, 2023. To avoid the vacancy of regional heads on January 1, 2025, the 2024 Pilkada voting process based on the law stipulated in November 2024 needs to be adjusted in time.

"The choice of time is in September 2024. This is a consideration for sufficient time until the dispute process, so that before January 1, 2025, there will be 3 months to resolve the recapitulation of the pelano and if there is a dispute," Tito said at the Commission II meeting of the DPR RI on Wednesday, September 20.

In this Perppu, the government during the 2024 Pilkada campaign period was shortened to 30 days. The reason is that there will be no slice between the stages of the 2024 General Election and the 2024 Regional Head Election.

"We know that not a few regions are involved in conflicts during the regional elections, especially during the campaign period," he said.

The duration of dispute resolution of the regional election process is also proposed to be trimmed. Tito said the proposed cuts were carried out at each level from Bawaslu to the Court which was final at the Administrative Court and abolished the dispute resolution process at the Supreme Court.