Deteriorating Image of Political Parties in Malang, Indonesia

Budhy Prianto,Dwi Suharnoko

doi:10.22158/ape.v3n4p34

Abstract

In the democratic countries, political party acts as mediator bridging communication between government and its citizens. The decline of political party taking place before and after the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections and legislative elections certainly affects the political parties in carrying out their roles. Conducted in Malang, objective of this study is to describe factors contributing declining image of political parties and its implications. The findings showed that image of political parties are deteriorating due to lack of trust towards the political parties and politicians in the parliament. The Decree on direct vote system for both presidential and regional head election and establishment of an open proportional system in legislative election also contribute to the deterioration. Implications of the phenomenon are negative attitude and declining interest towards political party.

Highlights

Number of political partiesincreas sharply in the reformation era
On the eve of simultaneous general elections - presidential elections and legislative elections held simultaneously-in 2019, constituents from each political party only become the main target of the political parties concerned to achieve the interests of political parties, namely winning the presidential and vice presidential seats as well as winning as many parliamentary seats
Transactional politics and wild political party oligarchies are the effects of an open proportional system that has major implications for liquid or fading ideology, so that constituent ties with political parties become very loose

Summary

Introduction

Number of political partiesincreas sharply in the reformation era. The General Election Commission reported that 48 political parties participated in 1999 Election. The number plummeted to 24 political parties in 2004 Election. There are 38 political parties including 6 local political parties in Nangroe Aceh Darussalam in 2009 Election. In legislative election conducted on April 9, 2014, the number declined sharply 12 national political parties and 3 local political parties in Nangroe Aceh Darussalam. In 2019 Election, the number slightly increased into 16 national political parties and 4 local political parties from Nangroe Aceh Darussalam (Tempo, April 22-28, 2019). The fluctuation is inversely proportional to the number of voters participating in the last four Elections. In 1999 Election, the number of voters is pretty high, and percentage of abstentions is only 10.21%

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Conclusion