The Challenge of Effective Socialisation and Voter Education

Dina Lestari

Magister of Political Science, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

Keywords: socialisation, political education, effective

Abstract: The Indonesian Electoral Commission which is in charge of the general election in Indonesia has to

socialise with the public to increase public participation. Public participation in the election is one of the

democratic election parameters that has to be promoted. In the current era of public information disclosure,

the Indonesian Electoral Commission needs to innovate for an effective method in providing socialisation

and voter education to the public. The purpose of this study is to find out the methods or strategies that can

be used by the Indonesian Electoral Commission in facing the challenge of socialisation in the digital era

today. The method used in this research is an explanatory literature study of books, journals and articles

related to this theme. The results of this study are expected to provide insight into the Indonesian Electoral

Commission in terms of socialising and voting education in the digital era.

1 INTRODUCTION

Socialisation and voter education are the Indonesian

Electoral Commission’s important tasks to increase

public participation in general elections. Public

participation is one of the parameters of democratic

elections in Indonesia. This is stated in Article 12 of

Law No.7 of 2017 about general elections.

Several things have been done by the Indonesian

Electoral Commission to provide voter information

and education to the public, such as information

services on websites, socialisation of young voters in

schools and campuses, and establishing smart

election houses at the Indonesian Electoral

Commission’s offices at a central, provincial and

district level.

Nevertheless, there are still a number of voters

who have registered on the voter list who are not

using their right to vote. There are several reasons

why voters do not come to the voting station,

because they work outside the region, performing

tasks that cannot be abandoned, or because of other

personal factors.

Based on data from the Indonesian Electoral

Commission, the total voter participation in 2018

reached 73.24% of 152,079,997 total voters

registered on the Voter List. The percentage shows

the national average of female voter participation to

be 76.67% and male voters to be 69.32%. This

shows that there are still some voters who did not

exercise their rights at 26.76%.

In this digital era, the Indonesian Electoral

Commission faces the challenge of making new

innovations for effective and efficient voter

education. The Indonesian Electoral Commission

should be able to take advantage of technological

developments to do voter socialisation and

education.

Based on the background, this paper primarily

focuses on revealing how the Indonesian Electoral

Commission can conduct effective socialisation and

voter education. By conducting this study, the author

expected to provide input and insight into the

Indonesian Electoral Commission in conducting

socialisation and voter education effectively in

today's digital era.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Socialisation

Socialisation is a long process referring to

internalisation of a value from the old generation to

young people; the purpose of this process is to

maintain the existing social system. Socialisation is

the transfer of habits, values and rules in a group or

society.

Lestari, D.

The Challenge of Effective Socialisation and Voter Education.

DOI: 10.5220/0008816000180021

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs (ICoCSPA 2018), pages 18-21

ISBN: 978-989-758-393-3

Specifically, Edward S. Greenberg defines

political socialisation as the process by which an

individual acquires attitudes, beliefs, and values

relating to the political system of which he is a

member and to his own role as citizen within that

political system. This term is important because

every political regime seeks to instil young people

with values, beliefs, and behaviours for continuance

of its political order, and those individual political

attitudes and aggregates of individual attitudes have

an impact on the operation of a nation’s political life

(Greenberg, 2017, pp. 3-4)

Some scholars have conducted more specific

research on civic education in some countries to

know the extent of its influence on students as

prospective and young voter subjects. Based on case

studies of civic education in some countries (1997-

2008) and research of the International Association

for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement

(1995-2000), Carole L. Hahn and Theresia Alviar-

Martin conclude that (Hahn, 2008, pp. 98-99):

 Students and teachers tend to view citizenship

as a passive role;

 Civic-political knowledge tends to be

correlated with socioeconomic status;

 Civic-political attitudes depend on gender;

 Civic-political instruction can increase student

knowledge;

 When its instruction is delivered through

participatory active learning strategies,

students develop political interest, efficacy

and trust –and they are more willing to extend

rights to diverse groups;

 Experiences in school are important for

developing student intention to become

actively engaged in politics;

 Confidence in school participation is often

associated with positive civic attitudes.

2.2 Voter Education

Voters in Indonesia are citizens that have reached

seventeen years old on voting day, or have been

married, and registered on the voter list. The

Indonesian Electoral Commission which is in charge

of general elections in Indonesia have to register all

qualified citizens. This is important so that all

citizens can use their right in the general election.

To increase voter participation in the election,

the Indonesian Electoral Commission needs to

conduct voter education amongst the public. Voter

education is an electoral knowledge transfer process

to know the importance of an election. It's not about

qualifications, how, when, and where to register as a

voter, but why we register as a voter. Also, it's not

about how, when, and where to vote, but why we

have to choose a party or candidate (Surbakti, 2013,

p. 6).

2.3 Effective

Being effective according to the Big Indonesian

Dictionary is being able to bring results, succeed, or

having an effect (consequently, its influence, its

impression). Barnard (2005) said that effectiveness

is the degree to which operative goals have been

attained, which allow the purpose of the Indonesian

Electoral Commission in implementing socialisation

to be achieved.

Schemerhon (2009) explains that effectiveness is

the achievement of output target, measured by

comparing the output budget with actual output; if

OA > OS, it is deemed to be effective. So, in this

case, effectiveness can be achieved if the target of

socialisation and voter education that has been

established by the Commission can be achieved.

3 RESEARCH METHOD

This research uses an explanatory literature study of

books, journals and articles related to this theme.

The data used are secondary data obtained from

official sources. Research focused on how the

Indonesian Electoral Commission deals with the

challenge of effective socialisation and voter

education in the digital era.

4 DISCUSSION

A general election is a means of implementing the

sovereignty of the people directly, publicly, freely,

secretly, honestly and fairly in Indonesia based on

Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution. The purpose of

a general election is to elect the Head of Region and

Deputy Head of Region, Members of the People's

Legislative Assembly, Regional Representative

Council, Regional People's Legislative Assembly,

and the President and Vice President as the

embodiment of the people's sovereignty in

accordance with the mandate of the 1945

Constitution Article 1 Paragraph (2) stating that

sovereignty is in the hands of the people and

implemented according to the Law Constitution.

In order to exercise the right to vote, a citizen

must be registered in the voter list or have a National

ID card if not already registered. The Indonesian

Electoral Commission as the organiser of the general

The Challenge of Effective Socialisation and Voter Education

elections has to ensure that all eligible citizens are

registered.

Based on the Law No.7 Tahun 2017, the

Indonesian Electoral Commission’s main tasks are:

 planning programs, schedules and budgets;

 preparing the Indonesian Electoral

Commission Regulation for every stage of the

election;

 coordinating, organising, controlling and

monitoring all stages of the election;

 updating voter data based on the latest election

and data submitted by the government;

 socialising the implementation of elections

and / or issues related to the Indonesian

Electoral Commission duties and authorities to

the public;

 conducting an evaluation and making a report

of each stage of the implementation of

elections.

In accordance with the description of the task

above, the Commission undertook several ways to

conduct socialisation; there are:

 public information through the website;

 public information services (PPID) online and

offline;

 socialisation of young voters in schools and

campuses;

 establishing smart election houses in

Indonesian Electoral Commission offices in

several provinces for pilot project;

 holding art performances that accommodate

local wisdom with the electoral theme.

Nevertheless, the number of voters participating

during the 2018 elections did not meet the 77.7%

target already set by the Indonesian Electoral

Commission. The level of public participation in

local elections 2018 was 73.24% from a total of

152,050,861 on the voter list.

The total voter participation in Pilkada 2018 was

73.24%, which is the average of the national women

voter participation rate of 76.67% and the male

voters at 69.32%. Women's voter participation rate

was higher than that of men nationally.

To increase the number of voters participating,

the Indonesian Electoral Commission should try to

find new ways to improve socialisation and voter

education in today's digital age. Information

technology can be used by the Commission to

achieve its objectives. Based on internet user data

launched by eMarketer, Indonesia ranks in the top

six in countries in the world with an estimated

number of 123 million users by 2018.

Based on the table below, it can be seen that the

internet media is one of the most appropriate ways

taken by the Indonesian Electoral Commission to

conduct socialisation and voter education. This is

based on the estimated figure of the Central Bureau

of Statistics (BPS) and based on the Indonesian

population in 2015 as 255,461,700 people. It can be

said that about half of the population of Indonesia

accesses the internet.

Table 1. Top 25 Countries Ranked by Internet Users,

2013-2018

Table 2. Internet User Composition in 2016

Table 3. Individual Internet activity 2016

ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs

Furthermore, based on Kominfo data in a survey

of Internet User Composition in 2016, about 90% of

Internet users have the right to vote in elections.

Therefore, the socialisation and education of voters

through the internet has been right on target

according to the minimum age requirements of

voters.

After discovering that the most effective method

of socialisation and voter education is on the

internet, the next question is how or in what way

should the Commission conduct socialisation and

voter education. To answer this question, we need to

look at the table above.

From the table above, we can conclude that the

main activity undertaken by netizens is opening

social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, line, and so on with a total percentage of

73.30%. Thus, we can conclude that the Indonesian

Electoral Commission should innovate in socialising

and voting education through social media in

creative ways in order to attract voters.

5 CONCLUSION

One of Indonesian Electoral Commission’s tasks is

to socialise the implementation of elections and / or

issues related to Indonesian Electoral Commission

duties and authorities to the public. This has been

done by the Commission in several ways, among

which are public information services online and

offline, socialisation of young voters in schools and

campuses, establishing smart election houses in

Indonesian Electoral Commission offices in several

provinces for pilot projects and holding art

performances that accommodate local wisdom with

the electoral theme.

There are some voters that are not using their

right to vote. The Indonesian Electoral Commission

has to face the challenge of effective socialisation

and voter education in the digital era today. The best

way that the Commission can do this is by using

information technology as an effective tool for

giving information to the public.

Based on Kominfo data about individual activity

on the internet, it was found that 73.30% of people

on the internet use social media. So, it can be

concluded that the most effective way to conduct

socialisation and voter education is to use social

media. Some types of social media that exist, among

others, are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Line, Path,

and others.

Socialisation and voter education should be

packed as attractively as possible, communication

should run two ways, not just in one direction in

providing information, for example, by holding

games, writing competitions, and some contests with

an electoral theme.

REFERENCES

Greenberg, Edward F., 2017. Political Socialization,

Routledge. New York.

Hahn, Carole L.and Martin, Theresa Alviar, 2008.

Handbook of Research in Social Studies Education,

Routledge, New York.

Surbakti, Ramlan dan Supriyanto, Didik, 2013. Partisipasi

Masyarakat Dalam Proses Penyelenggaraan

Pemilihan Umum. Kemitraan, Jakarta.

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https://statistik.kominfo.go.id/site/data?idtree=424&iddoc

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The Challenge of Effective Socialisation and Voter Education