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Disasters, political fatigue blamed for regional polls’ low turnouts
Many voters refrained from going to polling stations to cast votes for this year's simultaneous regional elections, with observers and election organizers mostly blaming disasters and political exhaustion as factors discouraging people from voting.
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A voter inserts a ballot for the 2024 simultaneous regional elections into a ballot box at a polling station in Sitaro, North Sulawesi, on Nov. 27, 2024. Thirty-seven provinces and more than 500 cities and regencies held simultaneous regional elections on Nov. 27, making it largest one-day regional elections in the country's history. (Antara/Yegar Sahaduta Mangiri)
The country’s largest simultaneous regional head elections have been marred somewhat by low voter turnout, mostly due to disasters and political exhaustion following the eventful general election held earlier this year.
While there has yet to be an official count of the voters who cast their ballots in Wednesday’s elections, several regions reported a low voter turnout compared with February’s presidential and legislative election turnouts, with many voters abstaining from voting, a tradition known as golput.
One of these is Yashinta Kania, a data analyst from South Tangerang, Banten, who refused to go to the polling booths to cast a vote in the Banten gubernatorial and South Tangerang mayoral elections because she was “sick” of seeing familiar figures on the ballot.
“I was just frustrated to see the same names since the last time I voted,” she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, “and I heard the rival candidate also doesn’t seem that promising.”
Banten saw a competition between two gubernatorial candidates, popular former South Tangerang mayor Airin Rachmi Diany, who is part of a provincial political dynasty, clashed with Gerindra Party politician Andra Soni, who was nominated by parties of the Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) that supports President Prabowo Subianto’s government.
Meanwhile, the South Tangerang race saw incumbent Benyamin Davnie running for reelection against local politician Ruhamaben.
