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Democracy in General Elections

Mitha Larasati Vidya Ningtiyas

IIK STRADA INDONESIA

mithalarasati1803@gmail.com

Abstract

Democracy is founded on the principle of equality, namely that every citizen

has equal rights and position in government, therefore every citizen actually has the
same power to govern.
This people's power is the source of legitimacy and legality of state power. In most
democratic countries, elections are considered a symbol, as well as a benchmark for
democracy. The results of elections held in an atmosphere of openness with freedom
of opinion and freedom of association, are considered to reflect rather accurately the
participation and participation of the community. With elections, it is hoped that we
can produce people's representatives who are able to understand the aspirations of
the people, especially in the process of formulating public policy with a system of
rotating power. Elections also provide an opportunity for power to form a constitution,
which does not necessarily mean that political parties in parliament will forget so that
each political party cannot maintain its power.

Keywords: Democracy, Freedom of Choice, General Election

Background

Community democracy has leadership succession through regular elections,

apart from that, elections are also a means of realizing people's sovereignty by
electing legislative members. Considering that elections are an opportunity for the
people to elect political officials, supervision is needed to ensure that elections are
carried out honestly and fairly. Direct regional elections, which are the life of local
democracy, are also a stage in the decentralization process. Direct elections have
also opened the door to maintaining local democracy which had been delayed during
Soeharto's rule.

Even though Indonesia already has an institution that specifically supervises

elections, namely Bawaslu, Bawaslu does not yet have a bank of funds regarding
election violations, for example Bawaslu has not been able to compare the number
of violations in the 2015 and 2017 simultaneous regional elections. This shows a lack
of manpower and funds for election supervisors or election management from The
supervision side has not yet been established, so Bawaslu has not dared to publish
the number of valid election violations.

Formulation of the problem

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The fundamental problem that determines the building of a country is the concept of
sovereignty adopted. Sovereignty is a concept related to the highest power in state
organizations. However, recognition of the holder of the highest power in a country is not
absolute. It experienced development both in terms of thought and constitutional practice,
starting from the sovereignty of God to the ideas of legal sovereignty and popular sovereignty.
However, when elections are held, fraud often occurs by a group of people so that the
election candidate wins, resulting in disputes between citizens and election officials.

Literature review
The development of politics and constitutional law in Indonesia proceeded rapidly
after the amendments to the 1945 Constitution were made by the Indonesian People's
Consultative Assembly in the period 1999-2002. One of the dimensions of development as
intended is marked by the strengthening of participatory democracy by the people in the
arena of national leadership succession through the means of holding direct general elections
for the President and Vice President. As mandated by the Constitution of the Republic of
Indonesia, especially Article 1 paragraph 2, emphasizes that, "Sovereignty is in the hands of
the people and is implemented according to the Constitution".

Furthermore, the provisions of Article 6A Paragraph (1) also mandate that, "The President
and Vice President are elected as a pair directly by the people".

Through its website, Bawaslu issues a brief description of the history of elections
election) in (http://www.bawaslu.go.id/id/profil/bisnis-pengawasan-pengawasan
Indonesia. A new Election Supervisory Institution emerged during the 1982 Election, under
the name of the Election Implementation Supervisory Committee (Panwaslak Pemilu). At that
time, distrust began to emerge regarding the implementation of the elections which began to
be co-opted by the forces of the ruling regime.
The formation of the Election Supervisory Committee in the 1982 Election was motivated by
protests over the many violations and manipulation of vote counting carried out by election
officials in the 1971 Election. Because the election violations and fraud that occurred in the
1977 Election were much more massive. These protests were then responded to by the
government and the DPR, which were dominated by Golkar and ABRI. Bawaslu's efforts
have identified 8 (eight) scopes of election supervision
(https://idonesiana.tempo.com/read/108926/2017/03/09/Potret-Pelanggaran-Pilkada
-2017) we should appreciate. The eight types of election violations are:

1. Supervision of the preparation of voter lists

2. Supervision of the nomination stages

3. Supervision of campaign stages

4. Supervision of campaign funds

5. Logistics supervision

6. Supervision of voting and vote counting

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7. Supervision of vote counting recapitulation

8. Supervision of the neutrality of ASN (State Civil Apparatus)

Discussion
The term democracy originates from Ancient Greek, which was
expressed in ancient Athens in the 5th century BC. The country is usually
considered an early example of a modern democratic legal system. However,
the meaning of the term has changed over time, and the modern definition has
evolved since the 18th century, along with the development of democratic
systems in many countries.
Etymologically, democracy comes from Greek, namely demos which
means people or population and cratein which means power or sovereignty.
Thus, in linguistic terms, democracy is a state where sovereignty or supreme
power is in the hands of the people. Democracy has existed since Ancient
Greece. The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln said that
democracy is government of the people, by the people and for the people or
as we know it better
Democracy has become the mainstream of modern countries.
Democracy is founded on the principle of equality, namely that every citizen
has equal rights and position in government, therefore every citizen actually
has the same power to govern. This people's power is the source of legitimacy
and legality of state power.
In most democratic countries, elections are considered a symbol and
benchmark of democracy. The results of elections held in an atmosphere of
openness with freedom of opinion and freedom of association are considered
to fairly accurately reflect the participation and aspirations of society. With the
election, it is hoped that it can produce people's representatives who are able
to understand the aspirations of the people, especially in the process of
formulating public policy with a system of rotating power. Elections also provide
an opportunity for a number of political parties to be thrown out of parliament
in each subsequent election. So that the power to form laws does not
necessarily make political parties in parliament forget so that each political
party cannot maintain its power.
Election participants are political parties. Political parties nominate
candidates in elections to be chosen by the people. Political parties themselves,
based on Law Number 2 of 2008 concerning Political Parties, are national
organizations and are formed by a group of Indonesian citizens voluntarily on
the basis of the same will and ideals to fight for and defend the political
interests of members, society, nation and state, as well as maintaining the
integrity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia based on Pancasila
and the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.

Elections are an arena for competition to fill political positions in the

government based on the formal election of citizens
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qualify. Universally, elections are an instrument for realizing people's

sovereignty which aims to form a legitimate government and a means of
articulating the aspirations and interests of the people. General elections are
one way to determine the people's representatives who will sit in the legislative
institution, so naturally there are various general election systems as a
government of the people, by the people and for the people.
A good election according to Ozbudun, as quoted by Sayed in Amalia
(2016: 16) from Weiner, depends on three things, namely: First, the existence
of universal adult suffrage without distinction between gender, ethnicity, religion,
race and the like. . Second, there is a fair election process (fidelity of voting),
justice in this case includes a guarantee of confidentiality in the election process
(secret ballot), a guarantee that the vote counting procedure is carried out
openly (open counting), there is no suspicion in the election process starting
from registration to vote counting, there was no political violence committed by
officials, political parties or voters –
(absence of violence), and no intimidation (absence of intimidation). Third,
there is the right to organize and nominate candidates (especially political
parties as election participants.

Conclusion
With the election, it is hoped that it can produce people's representatives
who are able to understand the aspirations of the people, especially in the
process of formulating public policies with a system of rotating power.
Political parties themselves, based on Law Number 2 of 2008 concerning
Political Parties, are national organizations and are formed by a group of
Indonesian citizens voluntarily on the basis of the same will and ideals to fight
for and defend the political interests of members, society, nation and state, as
well as maintaining the integrity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia
based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.

General elections are one way to determine the people's representatives

who will sit in the legislative institution, so naturally there are various general
election systems as a government of the people, by the people and for the
people.
Second, there is a fair election process (fidelity of voting), justice in this
case includes a guarantee of confidentiality in the election process (secret
ballot), a guarantee that the vote counting procedure is carried out openly
(open counting), there is no suspicion in the election process starting from
registration to vote counting, there was no political violence perpetrated by
officials, political parties or voters – (absence of violence), and no intimidation
(absence of intimidation).

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