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Celebrity candidates potentially harmful to the people's interests
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Singer Krisdayanti (center) poses in front of a camera as seen in an Instagram post on Sept. 14, 2024. Krisdayanti seeks to run for mayor of Batu, East Java, in the November election under the ticket of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). (Instagram/Krisdayantilemos)
The apparent attempts by political parties to use the popularity of celebrities to win votes in the upcoming regional head elections is widely seen as evidence of their failure to find competitive and reliable candidates, an issue which will eventually harm democracy and jeopardize the public’s interests, an analyst has claimed.
Hadar Nafis Gumay, the executive director of elections watchdog Network for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (Netgrit), said political parties should have been able to identify problems in respective regions and prepared candidates capable of addressing those issues.
The parties, on the other hand, opted to “look for shortcuts” in winning the races by endorsing celebrities as regional head candidates despite their lack of experience and questionable capacity to bring about positive changes.
“This proves the political parties’ inability to prepare promising candidates,” Hadar said on Wednesday, adding that the parties must continue to control the celebrities’ performance in their leadership roles should they be elected as regional heads in the November elections.
Scores of public figures have registered to run in some key battlegrounds in Java, including singer Krisdayanti who is running for mayor of Batu, East Java, with the backing of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and comedian Gilang Dirga who is running for the deputy regent of West Bandung in West Java under the joint ticket of the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
Read also: Star power: Parties, regional head candidates pick celebrities as campaign manager
The trend of using celebrity candidates can also be found in Central Java, where controversial celebrity Vicky Prasetyo and singer Vicky Shu are running as regional head hopefuls in Pemalang regency and Cilacap regency, respectively.
