The number of eligible voters who are not exercising their voting rights continues to rise, with many analysts believing the number will increase in next year’s legislative and presidential elections.
M. Fadillah, a member of the Jakarta office of the General Elections Committee (KPU), said the number of people voting in the capital had been falling for a number of years now.
“It’s true that participation levels in general elections continue to drop. In the 1999 elections [the first after Suharto stepped down, ushering in the democratic era], 92 percent of the electorate voted. That number fell to 84 percent in 2004 [when incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was first elected] and by 2009 it was down to 72 percent,” he said at a discussion in Jakarta on Sunday.
“But the turnout was much worse during the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election, when just two-thirds of eligible voters cast a vote.”
M. Taufiqurrahman, a legislator from the Democratic Party, told the discussion that he feared voter turnout in next year’s elections would decline even further because people were jaded with the politicians and parties they had previously voted into office. He said many legislators had failed to deliver on promises made during their campaigns.
In the discussion, hosted by the Proklamasi Institute, Taufiqurrahman gave tips on how to be a smart voter.
“There are two ways for the people to become politically smart. First, if a legislative candidate comes and gives you something, just take what is offered but don’t feel obliged to vote for that candidate. Second, choose a candidate who is already known and who brings a written political contract,” he said.
He added that prospective politicians tended to turn very generous ahead of elections, in the hope that they could curry favor with voters.
He warned that if people weren’t smart enough in choosing their representatives, they could end up with legislators who would say that they had already handed out food and money to the people for their votes and thus had no more obligations to them.
With a political contract, voters could have strong grounds to constantly remind their legislators to deliver on their promises, Taufiqurrahman said.
“A political contract makes the relationship between the person who was voted and the voters clear. It also guarantees the electorate and the elected are equal. So once the person is elected, people can easily demand they make good on the promises they made in the political contract.”
Author/Autor:SP/Novianti Setuningsih
Source/Fuente:http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/political-pact-could-boost-voter-eng...
