Local Elections in Indonesia were pioneered in 2005 as a part of broader demands for more open political participation after the call for reform. Prior to the reform era, the head of the region was elected by the Regional House of Representatives (DPRD), which was often criticized as being non-transparent and encouraging collusion between the executive and the legislature. Direct election by the citizen was then considered a solution to strengthen the accountability and legitimacy of regional heads. The implementation of local elections is carried out in 545 regions with details of 37 provinces, 415 regencies, and 93 cities throughout Indonesia. The local elections will be held on November 27, 2024. Local elections are the process of selecting and changing regional heads at the province, regency, and city levels in Indonesia. The application of Local Election is carried out democratically so that all citizen can participate in both being elected and selecting leaders in their own regions.
In the implementation of the Local Election, it often to find the enforcement of local election such as money politics, utilization of Government programs, mobilization of local bureaucracy, accuracy of voter’s data and voter treat. In addition, Khairunnisa Nur Agustiyati, Association for Election and Democracy (Perludem) (2015) stated that local election have occurred 140 enforcement of elections which were divided into five categories including the election violence, administration of election enforcement such logistics, administration, and nomination disputes, and crime enforcement. She found 54 criminal enforcement, 36 logistic enforcement like undistributed C-6 Form, 25 administration enforcement, 13 election violence, and 12 nomination dispute cases.
Theory of Electoral Justice
Electoral justice is a mechanism to maintain the legality of electoral process and the political rights of citizen. It encompasses effort to prevent breaches in electoral rounds, starting from the pre-electoral, the electoral, the post electoral (Orozco-Henriquez, 2010). Electoral justice prevents and identifies irregularities in local elections. It is starts from improving implementation to punishing who enforce laws (Jurnaidi, 2013).
Electoral justice plays a pivoted role to provide a mechanism for addressing disputes that may arise during elections. This mechanism encourages that election is comprehended universally and transparency and is highlighted every stage of local election. The objective is to ensure that democratic election could be held (Junaidi, 2013). It is acts as a guarantee that every electoral procedure adheres to legal frameworks, whether constitutional, statutory, or derived from international acts. Electoral justice ensures that elections are not only free and fair but are also perceived as legitimate by all stakeholders, thereby reinforcing trust in the democratic process. It provides who feels their electoral rights have been enforced to complain, attend a trial, and obtain a decision from the court. So, electoral justice is not only enforcing law but also designing and running the electoral process (Siregar, 2019). Electoral Process that are integrity, active participatory, legitimacy, time measurement, non-enforced rights, statutory provisions and universal acknowledgment as the consequences of electoral justice (Nkansah, 2016).
Participatory Supervision
Supervision is a part that goes hand in hand in order to realize direct, general, free, secret, honest and fair elections for every special group of election participants. The importance of supervision as a form of effort to minimize the occurrence of election enforcement so that the achievement of this principle is an indicator of the success of supervision carried out by The General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu RI), The Province of General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu Provinsi), The Regency of General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu Kabupaten/Kota), The district of General Election Supervisory Agency (Panwaslu Kecamatan), The Village of Election Supervisory Agency (Panwaslu Desa/Kelurahan), and The Polling Station of Election Supervisory Agency (Pengawas TPS). An election that is carried out without a free and independent mechanism and climate of supervision will make the election a process of power formation that is filled with various frauds. In such a situation, the election has lost its legitimacy and the resulting government actually does not have legitimacy either. Supervision in the implementation of the Election is carried out thoroughly at every stage of the Election, starting from the planning stage to the voting and counting of ballots. The need for supervision as an effort to realize the electoral justice.
The limitations of The General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu RI) conduct to supervise as an implication of the need to increase the role of participation from the citizen in supervising the election. Together with the Citizen, Supervise the Election, Together with The General Election Supervisory Agency uphold the fairness of the Election (Bersama Rakyat Awasi Pemilu, Bersama Bawaslu Tegakkan Keadilan Pemilu) as a tagline, it becomes a joint slogan regarding the importance of participatory supervision in supervising the Election in every region in Indonesia. Participatory Supervision is part of the manifestation of citizen’s sovereignty and strengthening political participation.
Collective awareness needs to be fostered to encourage citizen participation in monitoring every stage of the election implementation. Citizens have a very important role to play in the participatory monitoring of elections in Indonesia. This role includes four main aspects: First, the citizen is tasked with providing initial information by disseminating knowledge and understanding toward the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 7 of 2017 concerning the election. Second, the citizen plays a role in preventing enforcements by recognizing and avoiding potential enforcements in the election. Third, the citizen actively supervises and monitors the implementation of the election so that it complies with the procedures set out in the law. Finally, the citizen has the right to report any enforcements in the implementation of the election. By carrying out these roles, the citizen contributes significantly to maintaining the integrity and fairness of the election process in Indonesia. The low level of citizens participation in conducting supervision has implications for the implementation of the Local Elections that are not optimal. The citizen must actively learn the types of enforcements in the election so that the report is of high quality. This can be seen from the minimal number of reports from the community, for example in the 2020 Election in Jambi City, there were 7 cases classified as Findings and 10 cases categorized as Reports, with a total of 17 cases. What is noteworthy is that all 17 cases were registered or processed, without a single case that was not registered. This represents a 100% processing rate for both Findings and Reports in Jambi City during the period covered by this data. The complete processing of all cases indicates efficient handling by the authorities in Jambi City, both for issues found and incidents reported (Bawaslu Kota Jambi, 2020).
It is a challenge for The General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in encouraging citizen participation by educating the public about the importance of participatory supervision. Socialization through various media, including social media, can help increase public awareness. In addition, there needs to be security guarantees for people who report violations so that they do not feel afraid to participate.
The active participation of the citizen determines the quality of the elected leaders. The quality of elected leaders is strongly influenced by the quality of the election itself. When the election process is well supervised and integrity is maintained, elected leaders tend to have strong legitimacy and work in accordance with the mandate of the constitution. Conversely, if the election is characterized by various enforcements, the elected leaders may not have strong legitimacy, and this can have a negative impact on their performance in running the government.
Participatory oversight can also encourage elected leaders to be more responsible in carrying out the constitutional mandate. When the public is actively involved in monitoring, elected leaders will feel more monitored and encouraged to work in accordance with their promises during the campaign.
Ahead of Indonesia’s 2024 local elections, one highly contributed element could indeed be citizen watchdogs. Developing an active civic culture in the monitoring of elections will go a long way to assist Indonesia in consolidating its democratic processes toward more accountable leadership for better governance at the grassroots level. After all, the success of these elections will not be defined by how many people vote but by how deep and wide the engagement of the citizens is in the security of the electoral process.
