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Candidates play bigger role than political parties
An election officer hands a ballot paper to a voter at a polling station in Pondok Jagung, South Tangerang, Banten on Wednesday
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An election officer hands a ballot paper to a voter at a polling station in Pondok Jagung, South Tangerang, Banten on Wednesday. (thejakartapost.com/Wienda Parwitasari) (thejakartapost.com/Wienda Parwitasari)
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span class="caption">An election officer hands a ballot paper to a voter at a polling station in Pondok Jagung, South Tangerang, Banten on Wednesday. (thejakartapost.com/Wienda Parwitasari)
Wednesday's simultaneous regional elections in 269 cities and regencies across the country are further evidence that individual candidates play a more important role in the success of the elections rather than the political parties that support them.
A professor at political research center Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Ikrar Nusa Bakti, said on Wednesday that political parties only played a role in the early stages of a candidacy as a result of the prevailing regulation, but whether a candidate succeeded depended very much on the candidate and his campaign team.
The success of Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, who started his political career as a mayor of small town in Central Java, indicated that the people really wanted leaders who talked to them through blusukan (impromptu visit) so that they would learn what they needed.
'People expect a candidate to directly come to them and interact with them, but many candidates don't make the effort,' Ikrar told thejakartapost.com. "In the US, even though candidates campaign through the television or radio, they still have direct contact with the public in order to gain more votes," he said.
Ikrar said that the support of political parties could have the ability to negatively affect the success of a candidate, particularly if there were credibility problems concerning central figures of a political party. He gave as an example the case of alleged misconduct involving House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto, saying it would more or less affect the public's opinion of his political party.
Meanwhile, Philips Vermonte, a political researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said public skepticism toward political parties should act as a warning for their leaders on how they should chose candidates for regional leaders.
'The regional elections are about the figures, not the support of political parties. Therefore, the key to winning an election is how to recruit good people as candidates so that they can win the hearts of the people,' he told thejakartapost.com.
In regard to public skepticism over regional elections, Philips said regional elections could not be compared to legislative and presidential elections.
'The elections may look sluggish because they are simultaneous elections. They are different from national elections in which public attention is focused on just one battle,' he said, adding that public skepticism may also be caused by the political parties' failure to nominate candidates who people were interested in electing.
'Next time, they [political parties] have to do better in the recruitment of candidates,' he said.(bbn) (+)
