Know and Do Action for Elections

Student Exposure to General Election Commission

of Yogyakarta Special Region

More than thirty students from various regions and campuses visited General Election Commission (KPU) of Yogyakarta Special Region on Monday, January 28, 2019. They were participants of Stube’s Exposure, one of the activities in Church and Politics program of Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta. This visit aimed to increase students' knowledge, understanding and awareness of their rights and obligations in the general election and protect students’ right to vote, especially for those coming from outside Yogyakarta, so they can still be able to vote at the upcoming April 17, 2019. Then, it also encouraged students to get to know the general elections commission, its duties, authorities, and all the activities of organizing elections.

At 1:00 PM Ahmad Shidqi, one of the commissioner members of KPU DIY, the division chairman of Socialization, Voter Education, Community Participation and HR opened the discussion and introduced two other members, namely Wawan Budiyanto, the division chairman of Planning, Data and Information; then Moch. Zaenuri Ikhsan, the division chairman of Organizational Technique division. He appreciated Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta’s initiative to take part in welcoming General Election by organizing students to visit KPU DIY office to learn things related to the General Election. Trustha Rembaka, coordinator of Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta introduced Stube's institution and its concern on students and youth by giving added value to them related to certain topics, and currently related to elections and political issues.

In the discussion, Wawan Budiyanto explained how the students outside of Yogyakarta to vote in this city by processing A5 form from their hometown and registering themselves to the nearest voter’s poll. He also invited participants to check whether his or her name was already registered or not. Furthermore, he also explained KPU's plan to visit campuses for socializing the elections. The votes’ counting techniques and how to distribute seats in the parliament were also explained in the session. Some questions on other topics came up such as, KPU’s opinion toward 'money politics', students who were apathetic with politics and chose abstentions and also discussion on corruption inmates of some legislative candidates.

Achmad Shalahudin, a student of UIN Sunan Kalijaga, from Parepare, South Sulawesi, asked the criterias used by KPU to select 16 political parties from many parties in Indonesia. "KPU selected political parties based on the Constitution No. 31 of 2002 concerning party requirements, covering of having management at each provincial level, having management at least 80% of regencies in Indonesia and enclose membership card of one thousand members," explained Wawan Budiyanto.

At the end of the session, Ahmad Shidqi gave space for dialogue if the participants wanted to know something further. He also hoped that Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta can work together to succeed General Election 2019. Trustha Rembaka expressed his gratitude because KPU has accommodated students to learn about elections. In addition, he also informed Youth, Millennial and Political Literacy training on February 15-17, 2019. Let this experience be a good first step for young people to know and do action in the coming General Election. (ELZ).