Young Voters Assess the Election Less Socialization

by Dewanto Samodro Jakarta (Antara) - The General Elections Commission (KPU) and legislative candidates who will compete in the 2014 elections are not very familiar to young voters. "The propaganda by the candidates is only about introducing themselves without their programs. They offer nothing new," Student of Communication Department of University of Indonesia Savira Hanza stated, here on Tuesday. Savira added that the KPU did not provide much information about the election and the candidates. According to her, KPU should have a mass communication strategy that can effectively talk about the election so that people get clear information. "Maybe KPU can use the social media. But, I have been informed that KPU does not agreed with the use of social media such as Twitter," she explained. Member of Political Commission of House of Representative Tantowi Yahya who is also a candidate from Golkar Party, pointed out that there are several anomalies in the 2014 Election implementation. KPU has issued many regulations in order to improve the quality of the candidates. But on the other hand, the candidates are limited to campaign about themselves and their programs. "Campaigns are open only for one month. The candidates cannot campaign using billboards. Billboards are for use of party campaigns. The candidates who break the regulations should be disqualified," he asserted. With the limited ways to campaign, Tantowi added that the candidates have no space and time to promote their programs. Press-Community Election Monitor of Indonesian Journalist Association (Mappilu PWI) had organized a discussion, "Are We ready to Implement the Election", at the Hall of Press Council, Jakarta. Apart from Tantowi Yahya, the other speakers were Director of Lingkar Madani untuk Indonesia (Lima) Ray Rangkuti, Chairman of Community for Indonesian Parliamentary Forum (Formappi) Sebastian Salang and former member of the Press Council Agus Sudibyo. KPU will conduct the legislative elections on April 9 and the presidential election on July 9, 2014. (*)