Effectiveness of Open campaigns

The open campaign has been going on since March 24, 2019 and will end on April 13, 2019. From several days of the open campaign, many dominant media have discussed campaign violations. Bawaslu noted that there were several campaign violations such as the involvement of children in the campaign, several officials using state facilities, campaigning in prohibited places, black campaigns, to the use of campaign equipment that was not a political party's campaign equipment.

Beyond these issues, it seems necessary to look at other dimensions of the open campaign, such as how effective is the political communication of the two pairs of candidates? What are the effects of a series of campaign violations on the two pairs of candidates? How can the two pairs of candidates utilize this open campaign to strengthen their main supporters and tempt undecided voters?

To discuss this issue, the 2019 Election Edition of the Populi Forum raised the theme "Effectiveness of Open Campaigns". In this discussion, it was reviewed with Fadli Ramadanil (Researcher at Perludem) and Dimas Ramadhan (Researcher at Populi Center).

Fadli Ramadanil reminded that there are only 19 (nineteen) days left until the voting will take place. This means that it is getting closer and more decisive for related stakeholders to maximize the organization and implementation of the election. This election can be interpreted not only as a contestant's battle, but also a gamble for the election organizers. In this case, the aspects that will be highlighted must be related to open campaigns. Fadli reminded that related to open campaigns, there are two methods that can be used. First, a public meeting campaign in an open space, and second is a campaign in the mass media, both print and electronic.

Of the two methods, campaigning in mass media or electronic media is seen as the most effective method. However, campaigning in mass media or electronic media has a rule that is being debated. In the regulation, there is a limit of 10 slots in campaigning in mass media, while the KPU will facilitate three of these slots. The debate arose, if referring to the KPU version, it means that candidate pairs can do 13 broadcasts in campaigning in mass media, while from the Bawaslu version the three facilitated by the KPU are included in the 10 maximum limit slots set.

This example of debate should be a concern, which can later trigger a wider debate. This is not talking about neutrality, but rather talking about how the professionalism of the organizers should also be shown. In addition, the mechanism that has the potential to cause confusion related to the participation of the legislative and presidential elections is very unbalanced when viewed from the current rules. Fadli Ramadanil added that related to the transfer of election locations, the Constitutional Court has just decided that the deadline for processing the transfer of voting has been extended to h-7, or the latest is April 10, 2019, where it was previously set on March 17, 2019.

Dimas Ramadhan from Populi Center added that he appreciated the open campaign mechanism created in this election. There is a fairly good zoning division and the scheduling is also quite good. This arrangement can minimize the potential for friction between supporters of the two candidate pairs. In fact, this open campaign should be used as a momentum to convey the vision and mission for the future about what the two candidate pairs will do.

Open campaign can be likened to a candidate debate, how to measure it must use a clear measuring tool, one of which is a survey. However, it is worth noting the potential for friction between supporters to be minimized. As with Bawaslu's records which released from 34 provinces, almost half are in the red zone. This indicates that organizers are also increasingly required to anticipate these things.