Jakarta – The Chairman of the Bali General Election Commission, I Dewa Agung Gede Lidartawan, believes that the update of voter data based on the de jure principle in the 2024 gubernatorial election is the reason for the lack of increase in voter participation in the Bali gubernatorial election.
“Now it’s de jure, if we do it de facto it might be higher, because de jure includes everyone, even those on cruise ships or working abroad, so it’s impossible for them to return,” he said in Badung Regency, Bali, Sunday, December 8, 2024.
Lidartawan explained that the use of the de jure principle causes all eligible voters to be included in the permanent voter list, whereas in the regional elections there is no voting process outside Bali, unlike in the previous general elections.
This is what caused the voter turnout to be below the initial target of 75 percent, at 71.9 percent, similar to the Bali gubernatorial election in 2018, which at that time used the de facto principle with fewer voters than now.
The 71.9 percent participation rate this year consists of 2,364,475 voters from a total of 3,283,893 registered voters.
“If we want to be honest, there are two solutions we need to implement.” “First, the voter registration should be de facto, not de jure, or if everyone wants to vote, conduct a postal vote, we will record all the people outside Bali and provide them with (postal) cards to vote,” he said.
Regarding the issue of abstention in the Bali gubernatorial election reaching 28.1 percent due to a lack of socialization and distribution of Notification Form C, Lidartawan claims that this is inaccurate.
According to him, based on data from the KPU Bali, nearly 85 percent of voters have been exposed to socialization. Regarding Form C Notification, it has already been part of the socialization where the organizers have educated about checking the online DPT as an alternative if the notification form does not reach the voters.
He stated that data also showed only 4.6 percent of Notification Form C were returned by the Voting Organizing Group, and if all were returned, he believed it would not significantly change the numbers.
Not to mention, Lidartawan reminded about the conditions of the 2024 regional elections with one polling station containing 600 voters, making it difficult for the election organizers to meet directly and hand over the forms due to the varying schedules of the voters.
“Sometimes the house is locked, searched morning, noon, evening, and night, but it’s still not found, and if it’s entrusted to someone else, it’s misplaced again.” “Maybe later, in my opinion, we should start with digital only, everyone has a good phone, just send it to each phone, no more distribution,” he said.
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