Erowati, Dewi and Astuti, Puji and Turtiantoro, Turtiantoro (2022) Vote Buying: The Practice of Support Mobilization on Village Head Election. In: International Conference Proceeding ICISPE Universitas Diponegoro 22 EMBRACING GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION: COLLABORATIVE INNOVATIONS TROUGH SOCIAL AND POLITICAL RESEARCH 7-8 SEPT 2022. ICISPE Fisip Undip, Semarang. ISBN ISSN 2593-7650 (Submitted)

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Abstract

The 2021's Village Head Election in Kemiri Village, Sumpiuh District, Banyumas Regency has
shown that vote buying, a practice commonly done by politicians of exchanging money and other private
material benefits for support, was openly practiced on a massive scale. Under this context, the vote can be
seen as a contract or action in which the voters sell their votes. The issue of vote buying has become a
problem and threat to the health of the election process and democracy.This research aims to examine why
the practice of vote buying is now more open and massive in village head elections and why people are
more tolerant of this phenomenon. Moreover, the behavioral pattern of the voters to base their votes on
money or other material exchange and the implication of vote buying in the village democracy process as
a whole is also the focus of this research. By adopting descriptive study, this research utilizes in-depth
interviews as the main instrument in collecting data and information from the informant. The finding of
research shows that there are several facts why vote buying is more open and common: 1) According to
the voters, vote buying is something that usually happens in the village head election process, thus they
don't see it as a wrong practice in our political realm; 2) Vote buying is often practiced by candidates that
are least likely to be the winner due to their lack of popularity and good track records in the community.
They are also the main actor in why the practice is now more open and massive; and 3) All candidates that
give incentives to the potential supporters get their votes as the exchange, with the range of money given
and distributed being the main difference. The practice of vote buying is a threat to our future democracy,
especially on the smaller scale such as village head elections. Therefore, it is recommended for our political
education to fight against vote buying as a moral movement that involves all elements of society. It is also
recommended to build collective awareness to enlighten people about the negative effect of vote buying
for a better and much healthier political environment in Indonesia.
Keywords: Vote Buying, Democracy, Village Head Election, Political Education

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