Communication Strategies in Electoral Bodies Empowerment

Fatmawati Moekahar, and Abdul Aziz

Universitas Islam Riau, Indonesia

Department of Communication, Faculty of Communication

Keywords: Communication, Strategies, and Election.

Abstract: This paper aims to understand if, and how, communication strategy by the Election Supervisory Board in

Riau to electoral bodies empowerment. Communication Strategies are needed to maintain organization,

reputation and realize to a democratic election. This paper is based on interviews with key informants, and

there is 14 person with purposive sampling. The research used to the qualitative method, and analysis

techniques were descriptive. Steps communication strategies by the Election Supervisory Board in Riau

have been categorized into objective, programme, action and Evaluation. All of steps communication

strategy as the exchange of ideas, duties and obligations, and political activity as Election Supervisory

Board in Riau. The practical implication was used to the Election Supervisory Board in Riau and

stakeholders for the created strategy of communication to be a supervisor institutional at Local Election.

Results of this research are a model of communication strategy by the Election Supervisory Board in Riau

for Institutional Empowerment.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the history of election implementation in

Indonesia, the term election monitoring emerged in

the 1980s. However, institutionally, this election

supervisor experienced quite high dynamics. They

are starting from ad-hoc institutions until

constitutionally legalized based on the latest

Election Law, Law Number 7 of 2017. Election

Supervision is a conscious, deliberate, and planned

process to realize the essential democratization.

Elections which are carried out without a free and

independent mechanism and climate of supervision,

result in elections being vulnerable to fraud. This

makes the Election lose its legitimacy, and the

resulting Government actually lacks integrity and

accountability. Supervision is a basic need for

elections and local elections. In Indonesia, the

election supervisory body is called Bawaslu

(Election Supervisory Body). The existence of this

institution is at the central level (Bawaslu), province

(Provincial Election Supervisory Board), district/city

(District/City Bawaslu), sub-district (Panwascam)

and village (PPL - Field Supervisory Committee).

In authority as an election supervisor, the

Election Supervisory Board in Riau has the duty to

oversee all steps of the Election. As one of the

election organizers, the Election Supervisory Board

in Riau must be able to coordinate with other

election organizers, namely DKPP, KPU, Police,

participants, the Government, and the public.

Therefore, the right communication strategies is

needed in an effort to strengthen electoral

institutions. This study wants to describe how the

election supervisory communication strategy in an

effort to strengthen electoral institutions, especially

the election supervisory institutions at the

provincial level. Communication, as one of the

important elements in building interpersonal

relationships within an institution and among

related institutions in order to achieve the objective

of supervision, is a dignified election based on the

principles of democracy.

A lot of research has been done on

communication strategies. However, researchers

who focus on the communication strategies carried

out by the election organizer (Bawaslu) have not

been widely carried out. Harminus carried out the

same topic in his thesis (Harminus, 2017),

Communication Strategies by the election

supervisory board at West Java in maintaining the

neutrality of the state civil apparatus in the local

elections 2015. The results of the study said that the

communication strategies consisted of five stages:

Moekahar, F. and Aziz, A.

Communication Strategies in Electoral Bodies Empowerment.

DOI: 10.5220/0010623300002967

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Vocational Higher Education (ICVHE 2019) - Empowering Human Capital Towards Sustainable 4.0 Industry, pages 239-243

ISBN: 978-989-758-530-2; ISSN: 2184-9870

239

analysis, strategic design, development and testing,

implementation and Evaluation. In addition, the

implementation of the communication strategies

carried out emphasizes more on group

communication than on mass or interpersonal

communication. Hallahan, etc. (2007), Defining of

Strategic Communication; King (2009), Emergent

Communication Strategies; Zerfass (2009),

Institutionalizing Strategic Communication:

Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Evidence.

2 RESEARCH DESIGN

The strategy is an idea or conception put forward by

practitioners to achieve certain goals. Rogers (1982)

said that strategy is a design that is made to change

human behaviour on a larger scale through the

transfer of new ideas (Cangara, 2014). The

communication strategy is the best combination of

all communication elements, from communicators,

messages, channels, effects designed to achieve

optimal communication goals (Middleton, 1980).

This research design focuses on the stages of

communication strategies proposed by Cutlip,

Center and Broom (2006), namely: 1. Develop goals

both short term (as a communication influence) and

long term (as a relationship gauge). 2. Planning a

communication program to improve goals. 3. Take

action and communicate (by implementing public

programs, actions and communications designed to

achieve specific goals for each public in order to

achieve program objectives) 4. Evaluate the program

by evaluating the preparation, implementation and

results of the program. Communication planning is

about sets of action in a goal (Fergusson, 2009).

3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Communication Strategy of Stages:

The success of the Election is a determining factor

for the effectiveness of work from an institution

called the election supervisory board. It is when

there is a guarantee for the implementation of an

honest and fair election. All frauds and violations

committed by election stakeholders will be

minimized if the supervision carried out by the

election supervisory board is very strong and has

integrity. Based on Law Number 7 of 2017, the

duties and authorities of the Election Supervisory

Body are confirmed even by all members of Election

Supervisory Body up to the district /city level.

Therefore, the Election Supervisory Body becomes a

very strategic institution in monitoring all stages of

the General Election. At present, the role of the

Election Supervisory Body is no longer a

sender/successor or analogous as a "postman" that is,

overseeing, receiving and forwarding/reporting

violations. Following are the stages of the Riau

Election Supervisory Board strategies in

strengthening institutional elections:

Objective

The objectives consist of two long-term and short-

term goals. The long-term objective of the Riau

Election Supervisory Board in the effort of

institutional strengthening is the implementation of

democratic elections. Whereas in the short term,

the aim is first, to carry out the duties and

responsibilities as an election organizer with

integrity. Second, the existence of supervisory

board. Election supervisory bodies need to make

various efforts to show their existence to the public

so that they are confident and trust the existence of

election supervisors.

Program

The election supervisory board has three programs

that become strategies in efforts to strengthen

electoral institutions, namely: Supervision

programs, cooperation programs and institutional

optimization programs.

1. Supervision

The supervision program carried out by the

election supervisory board consists of 3 types:

a) Active supervision. Active supervision is the

identification and mapping of violation points

at each stage of the Election and the focus of

supervision based on potential mapping

violations. Referring to the great authority

based on the latest election law, the election

supervisory board has a complete function.

Election supervisors even have the authority to

supervise election participants, the public and

other organizers, the KPU.

b) It is adhering supervision. Attached supervision

is supervision carried out together with other

election organizers, namely KPU. In each stage

of the Election determined by the KPU, the

election supervisory board must be present in

supervising each stage that is running.

Therefore this supervisory performance is

largely determined by good coordination and

cooperation between the two.

c) Participatory supervision. Participatory

supervision is a monitoring movement carried

ICVHE 2019 - The International Conference of Vocational Higher Education (ICVHE) “Empowering Human Capital Towards Sustainable

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out by involving the active role of the

community and all parties involved, both

election participants, political parties, election

participants, the Government and the

community. Participatory supervision is needed

to support democratic elections.

The need for direct involvement of outsiders in

carrying out participatory; The firstly, the presence

of large-scale voters in Indonesia. Second, efforts

to equalize perceptions among stakeholders and at

the same time, increase awareness of the courage to

report indications of violations of election

implementation. Third, as a political education for

the public to participate in all stages of the

Election, and fourth, in an effort to introduce the

duties and authority of the election supervisory

board to the community so that the community is

willing to support the work of the Election

Supervisory Body in conducting election

monitoring.

2. Cooperation

The reason for cooperation conducted by the

election supervisory board of Riau Province consists

of two things: first, subjective reasons, namely

personnel limitations. And the second reason is

objective reasons, namely: a very wide area of

supervision and a limited ratio of election

supervisory personnel when viewed from the

unbalanced number of government administrative

areas. Therefore the election supervisory board of

Riau Province cooperates with various parties,

including KPU, DKPP, Sentragakkumdu,

Universities, Community Organizations, Media,

and Communities.

The concrete step of the election supervisory

board in conducting participatory supervision, as

part of a program of cooperation with other parties is

to create a "One Million Volunteer Election

Movement". This movement was raised when

guarding the 2014 election. The election supervisory

board actively formed a million volunteers from

various elements, including the community,

students, the media and activists of community

organizations who were concerned about election

supervision.

The principles used in raising election

supervisor volunteers are: first, mutual respect,

without coercion, beneficial both parties and

transparently accountable. Second, creating

dependency, planned, measured and has legal

certainty. Third, proportional, professional, effective

and efficient.

3. Institutional Optimization

The strengthening of the election supervisory

board consists of two categories, namely: internal

institutions and external institutions of

strengthening:

a) Internal institutional of strengthening

Optimization of the internal institutions of

the election watchdog organization is carried out

in two ways: first, Strengthening the

performance of supervisors. The main role of the

election supervisory body is as an institution that

oversees all stages of the Election. Therefore, the

performance indicators of the election

supervisory board are the success of democratic

elections at the provincial level with integrity

supervision. In the oversight process carried out,

the Election Supervisory Body identifies various

violations that occur in the election process.

Second, strengthening human resource capacity.

This step is carried out by coaching the election

supervisory board members at the provincial

level down to the following ways: education

related to supervision and guidance that

originates from findings/information in the field.

b) External institutional of strengthening

External institutional strengthening consists

of two, namely: building synergy with

stakeholders and creating a positive image in the

community.

4. Actions

The action is a follow-up action from the program

prepared by the election supervisory board in an

effort to strengthen the institution. The election

supervisory board implemented two actions in

carrying out its authority as election supervisors,

including first, preventive measures—prevention of

potential violations by taking action, optimal steps

and efforts to prevent early potential violations.

Prevention must be results-oriented. The methods

used are socialization, stakeholder involvement,

early warning, mass media publications and

recommendations. Second, repression. Enforcement

of alleged violations by taking action to deal quickly

and accurately with the findings and/or reports of

alleged election.

5. Evaluation.

Evaluation is the final stage of the communication

strategy carried out by the election supervisory

board in institutional strengthening. In the

Evaluation, phase consists of two activities, namely

monitoring and Evaluation. Monitoring is carried out

periodically to all the performance of personnel and

Communication Strategies in Electoral Bodies Empowerment

241

staff at the lower level. While the Evaluation was

carried out by looking at the targets achieved by the

election supervisory board, this stage is carried out

at the end of each election stage. Monev to the lower

level election supervisors is carried out alternately

by the commissioner with the secretariat team.

Based on the findings, a communication

strategy model can be made by Riau Election

Supervisory Bodies:

Figure 1. Model Of Communication Strategies By Riau's

Election Supervisory Board

This research has shown that the right strategy

in communicating policies is needed by the election

supervisory board in order to be able to carry out the

process of the stages of elections in a democratic and

in accordance with the laws and regulations as a

constitutional basis for action. All stages in the

communication strategies are the efforts of the

election supervisory board in strengthening electoral

institutions. Communication strategies start with

determining goals, formulating programs, actions,

and evaluations. All stages of the Election will not

be passed when these stages are not properly

communicated to all stakeholders.

4 CONCLUSION

Bawaslu Riau's communication strategy in

optimizing electoral institutions consists of 4 steps:

Objectives, programs, Actions and Evaluations. The

objectives consist of two types, namely long-term

goals (realizing democratic and integrity elections),

and short-term goals (carrying out the duties and

functions of the election supervisory institution).

The program has three types of supervision, namely

active supervision, attached supervision and

participative supervision. Action is a step taken by

Riau Bawaslu in implementing the planned program,

consisting of two, namely preventive and repressive.

While the final step is Evaluation, carried out

through two activities, namely supervision and

Evaluation.

The communication strategy process carried out

by Riau Bawaslu is a long, planned and measurable

process that is based on legislation to strengthen

electoral institutions. Synergy with other institutions

both directly as Bawaslu's work partners or not

becomes an important and inseparable part of Riau

Bawaslu. As an election supervisory institution,

every individual in it strives to realize the ideals of

democracy through elections and elections that are

carried out well and with integrity. The

communication strategy is a process of exchanging

ideas developed within the organization's internal

and external organization. Organizational dynamics

emerged in the oversight process carried out by

Bawaslu, in the form of conflict, the same

orientation and support for the institution. The

strategy is also part of the organization's political

decisions in strengthening institutions. Negotiations

and lobbying occur in small discussion groups

involving individuals, groups and organizations

outside the Election Supervisory Body.

In 4.0 industry era, an organization is required to

be more sensitive to all changes. a dynamic

environment must be faced with a system that is not

rigid and closed. a strong organization supported by

human resources that are able to keep up with the

times that are tailored to the needs of the

organization.

The communication strategy model implemented

by Riau Election Supervisory Bodymust be able to

make this institution strong and credible and

integrity. The main aim of this paper was to know

how communication strategies by Election

Supervisory Board in Riau to electoral bodies

empowerment. There are four steps, namely:

objective, program, action and Evaluation. All of

these steps constitute a unified strategy aimed at

strengthening institutions. Communication strategy

as an exchange of ideas, duties and obligations,

consists a political activity as Election Supervisory

Board in Riau. This step is a derivative result of the

institution's policy above (The Election Supervisory

Body of RI). The communication strategy of Riau's

Bawaslu in strengthening electoral institutions is a

strategic, planned and measurable step that goes

through four stages.

ICVHE 2019 - The International Conference of Vocational Higher Education (ICVHE) “Empowering Human Capital Towards Sustainable

4.0 Industry”

242

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author would like to express his gratitude for the

financial support from Universitas Islam Riau so that

this research could be completed properly. Faculty

of Communication Sciences also to support the

researcher in finishing this research. As well as

thanking the authors convey to all research sources

who were willing to become informants in this

study.

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