Indonesia's UGM Students Conduct Study on Green Election Possibility

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A team of Social and Political Science students at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) researched the possibility of a green election in Indonesia.

"We conducted this green election research to see how it influences urban communities’ voting behavior,” said research initiator Lutviana Herawati in a statement in Yogyakarta on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.

Lutviana said the research involved various parties, including government agencies, practitioners, non-governmental organizations, and urban communities as the research subjects.

The background of this research is the 2024 general elections, specifically regarding the massive amount of campaign props displayed in random places.

The installation of billboards and posters, she said, dims the aesthetics of the city. Moreover, these props have injured people and created a mess of shredded waste.

"We believe the previous election campaign was inadequate since it still endangered people and polluted the environment,” the student said. 

For this reason, the UGM student research team brought up the topic of green election. There is little research about this idea, Lutviana said, and even less in Indonesia. 

In the research, Lutviana is assisted by several other students from her department, namely Farida Ratnawati, Difa Mardi, Krisnanda Kogoya, and Dian Arsyka, a student from the Department of Environmental Geography, UGM’s Faculty of Geography.

Difa, a team member, said the research focuses on how discourse influences the voting behavior of urban communities. They conducted the research in Yogyakarta and Jakarta, two cities that they believe represented urban communities. 

Difa said the environmentally friendly election could be realized through digitalization, based on an interview with a member of the General Elections Commission Sri Surani. 

"This research could increase public understanding about environmental issues which correlates with various aspects including politics,” Difa said. The student also hopes to enter the research to a student competition organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology.

ANTARA

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