Badung –
The Badung General Election Commission (KPU) said that voter participation in the 2024 Bali gubernatorial election and Badung regional election was only 78.01 percent. This figure is far from the hopes of the organizers who want the enthusiasm of Badung residents to vote at the polling stations to reach 85 percent or more of the voting participation achieved in the 2024 presidential and legislative elections.
Badung KPU Chairman I Gusti Ketut Gede Yusa Arsana Putra emphasized that the low voting participation rate in Badung was thought to be caused by several factors. One of them is allegedly a demographic problem in the southern Badung region.
Agung Yusa said, in one case, a number of residents who were listed on the permanent voters list (DPT) did not come to the polling station because it was suspected that Form C notification of voting had not yet arrived. This is because residents with Badung ID cards are still found who have moved their residence.
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“Indeed, C the notification was not received because the person concerned was not found at that place. We cannot give C the notification other than to the person concerned or at least the person closest to the voter, who is responsible,” said Yusa Arsana Putra, Wednesday (4/12 /2024).
He gave an example of a case in a settlement in Tuban Village, Kuta District, where several residents had moved or no longer lived in that location. Even though from population data, these residents are still recorded as Badung residents whose addresses are at that location.
“In one of the settlements there were hundreds of families. Because some people were not found, we did not dare give C notification to other friends who lived there (other people),” said Yusa.
“Residents consider not getting C notification as different treatment. We are also to blame. Even though they have changed addresses, shifted and so on,” he continued.
Agung Yusa then said that only 6,864 voters from 16,332 DPTs in Tuban Subdistrict came to the TPS. This area is the sub-district with the lowest voter participation in Badung, namely 42.01 percent. Even in Jimbaran Village, South Kuta, only 52 percent, namely 17,739 people came to the TPS out of 33,997 people who entered as DPT.
He said, this is different from the demographics of voters in the northern Badung region who are de jure registered as residents of Badung, and de facto are also real voters who are native and live in the region. This condition, said Agung Yusa, will be an evaluation by the Badung KPU, although this, said Agung, is not the only measure of election success.
“We are certainly not satisfied. I actually hope that in the south it can at least be above 70 percent. But we are still grateful that North Kuta reached 74 percent. Even if, for example, Kuta and South Kuta could reach above 70 percent, I am sure that overall Badung voter participation reached 80-85 percent,” he said.
Apart from demographic problems, Agung Yusa suspects that there are voters who will not have free time on voting day, such as working in special sectors such as tourism. So they don’t have free time to come to the polling station or take care of moving to a location near their place of work.
For your information, voting participation in Badung in the 2024 regional elections is 78.01 percent. Meanwhile, Abiansemal District had the highest voting participation rate, namely 90 percent, followed by Mengwi 88.69 percent, and Petang 87.10 percent.
Meanwhile, South Kuta District is 64.05 percent, Kuta District is 62.50 percent, and North Kuta is 73.49 percent. The record of participation in the Badung Regional Election from time to time is in the 2005 Badung Regional Election, namely 82.32%, 2010 (73.95℅), 2015 (68.34%), and 2020 (84.06%).
(nor/nor)
