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University student elected youngest councillor
For a student of mathematics and natural sciences, Siti Rizqiyah Putri Dwi Ani, 22, can speak about politics quite fluently
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For a student of mathematics and natural sciences, Siti Rizqiyah Putri Dwi Ani, 22, can speak about politics quite fluently.
She has just won a seat on the Rembang Regency Council in Rembang, Central Java, being the youngest member of the legislature in the region.
Based on the result of the vote count conducted by the regency elections commission, Siti won 5,616 votes in the April 17 election.
Running as a candidate for the United Development Party (PPP) in Sluke and Kragan electoral district, Siti said she was inspired by her lecturer at Semarang State University. The lecturer, she said, became a deputy dean within only three years.
“When I was a senior high school student, I was a member of the class advisory council. I was also a member of the organizing committee for the new student orientation every year,” Siti said about her own organizational career.
Born on Aug. 28, 1997, Siti is the second of three children of Muhammad Ali and Siti Naula, an entrepreneur family in Sendangmulyo subdistrict, Sluke district, Rembang.
She said it was not easy to win votes in the 2019 election in Rembang, especially for a rookie candidate like her.
“I didn’t expect to win that many votes. I am a newcomer. But, I had a way to make myself known and then was eventually elected,” Siti said, adding that her whole family supported her decision.
She said she went door to door, seeking support. She also asked for blessings from community figures, party figures and clerics, including well-known Muslim cleric Maimun Zubair, she said.
“They were glad that I was running as a legislative candidate. They expressed the hope for more women to enter the political arena,” Siti said.
Other strategies, she added, included campaigning through social media, ranging from Instagram to Facebook.
The PPP is relatively popular in Rembang. In the 2014 general election, the political party won the most seats on the regency legislative council with 10 seats, followed by the Democratic Party and the National Awakening Party (PKB) with six seats each. Gerindra and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) followed with five seats each, followed by the NasDem Party and the Golkar Party with three seats each. Hanura and the National Mandate Party (PAN) won two seats each while the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) won one.
Siti said that she wanted to be a member of Commission B overseeing agriculture and fisheries and fight for the well-being of the many fishermen in the regency, among other constituents.
She also said she would continue her studies as she is scheduled to graduate in December.
“I can work [as a councillor] while doing my final paper,” she said.
