Regional elections are an essential five-yearly moment for public to select their regional head for the next five years. The regional elections become a democratic instrument for public to express their aspiration by having a regional head as public expectation. To find out public understanding of the election as well as public real expectation, and to predict regional head candidates’ electability, it is necessary for public, particularly Yogyakarta’s people, to know further ideal criteria of regional head candidates. Public understanding toward the aspects is less. The explanation was presented by a Governmental Study lecturer of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) Erni Zuhriyati, S.S., S.IP., M.A. in a Research Finding Presentation of the Last Year Prediction of Governmental Study Laboratory of UMY on Friday (4/12) at Building A.R. Fachruddin A, Floor 5, UMY.
The research participants were 400 people comprising 133 participants from Bantul, 149 participants from Sleman, and 118 participants from Gunung Kidul. The research highlighted three significant findings. First, regarding the extent of public understanding of regional elections, the research revealed that 87% of participants knew the regional elections, and the other 34% did not. Second, dealing with public understanding of regional head candidates, the findings showed that 65% of participant recognized the regional head candidates, 38% of participants know the regional head candidates’ vision and mission. The research confirmed that public most expected vision and mission were about poverty reduction, education and culture. Third, dealing with public expectation toward the regional head candidates’ criteria, 37% of participants looked at the candidates’ capability and leadership, while 35% of participants considered gender to elect the candidates. It presented that 90% of participants selected men to be the regional head.
On the research, Erni provide a recommendation for the implementation of the regional elections, and the organizers. First, it is necessary to optimize media to socialize the elections so that public will comprehend and got the information regarding the election. The socialization can employ billboards, banners, printed media, and campaigns. “Besides, it is expected that the elected regional head, later, can prioritize and focus on public expected programs; those are poverty reduction, education, and culture,” she mentioned.
The success of the regional elections, essentially, relies on not only general election commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) as the general election organizers but also public to monitor and to actively engage in the regional elections. A commissioner of KPU of Special Region of Yogyakarta Dr. Guni Tri Tjahjoko, M.Div., M.A. stated, “The general election are responsibility of all public elements whereas the KPU is only the organizer. It is expected that public can actively involve in monitoring the regional election. Not only may they recognize the candidates but also they watch the candidates before and after the elections. They may ask the elected regional head’s promises during the campaign to coin public welfare,” he argued.
