Preparation for Indonesian Election 2024: Women's Participation in Political Contest

: This article focuses on the preparation and participation of Indonesian female candidates in the Riau Archipelago Province's 2024 political contest. Why women participate in political parties and legislative seats at such a low rate is a big question. The Mix Method research to find the best results elaboration. In-depth interviews were conducted with six political party leaders, and 120 questionnaires were distributed to each party. Each party was given 20 questionnaires containing the same questions. The traditional political environment is still the main reason for women's participation, and this will also be the case in the 2024 elections. The primary reason is their need for more involvement in election recruitment, nomination, and candidacy. The emphasis is very much on the patriarchal system, and women's families and personal environments are inadequate. Aside from that, there is a limit: the stigma of women in politics is only significant as a background player. Existing regulations are formalities; each party has its own method of conditioning existing regulations. There must be firmness in the system of 30% quotas for women, or even better, a strategic way for them to want to participate in the elections of 2024 and beyond.


Introduction
Indonesia's democratic system is expected to provide guarantees and rights for the community to express opinions and participate in all government decisionmaking (Duile & Bens, 2017). The active participation of women aims to activate the role of women to reduce gender issues that have arisen at the national level as a result of the increase in cases of physical and psychological violence, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and the dual role as head of the family (Ratnasari et al., 2021). Special attention must be paid to women and their ability to express themselves to obtain equal rights and protection, so they can be communicated through open delegation channels and Indonesian politics. Women's political representation is unquestionably a breath of fresh air in the openness of democracy (Hayes, 2011). However, in Indonesia's modern democracy, there are far too many obstacles for women to overcome to gain political seats.
Reflecting on Indonesian policies that have existed since 1958, namely Law Number 68 of 1958 concerning the Rights of the Convention on the Political Rights of Women, which provides equal space, equality of position, and guarantees for the right to vote for the community and elected, participation in policy formulation, opportunities to occupy bureaucratic functions, and involvement in socio-political organizations, which is a great opportunity for women (Angin et al., 2018). Strengthening through basic policies, namely Law Number 68 of 1058, has been established; this consistency is supported by Law No. 22 of 2007 concerning election organizers, which regulates the composition of election organizers by paying attention to at least 30% female representation.
Policy support and affirmative action make it increasingly clear that political parties must include at least 30% female legislative candidates when submitting candidates for legislative members at the local, regional, or national levels (Rahmatunnisa, 2016). A vulnerable political environment can be at least neutralized through affirmative action and efforts to protect women's political rights, including the right to be elected and vote (Druckman & Lupia, 2016;Suryanto et al., 2021).
While policy support and ensuring the rights of female candidates are ongoing issues, another issue that must be addressed is increasing women's enthusiasm and participation in Indonesian political contests. Efforts to equalize men and women in politics continue to be increased to close the gender gap (Rahmatunnisa, 2016), specifically through the open recruitment of all political parties and the prioritization of women candidates. Recruiting female legislative candidates is a difficult task; several researchers previously stated that political dynasties only filled the dominance of recruitment and that it was merely a formal event to fulfill the women's quota (Akbar & Purnomo, 2019;Fatimatuzzahra & Dewi, 2021). Only some can discover electable women who comprehend politics and ethics and possess electability. Considering that it is simple to garner public attention in this manner, the essential reference alludes to the persistence of gender and justice issues for women.
It is undeniable that quality female candidates are required to seek votes and be widely known by the public, so strong instruments such as identity filtering, interests-talents, networks, capital, knowledge, and loyalty are required to get quality candidates because they can become role models and are predicted to increase the arousal of first-time and female voters (Arvate et al., 2017;. Identity is used to influence and attract the public's attention to accommodate the abilities of political opponents. Identity will become more prominent if the candidate can demonstrate interest and talent in speaking, a series of political sayings, and well-established political knowledge. Political coherence combined with additional knowledge and a religious approach is an appealing selling point to influence society, as evidenced by the results of the 2019 national elections, in which every party, regardless of ideology, raised religious issues in every campaign activity (Wardani & Subekti, 2021). This proportion is ideal if the candidate has substantial financial capital and a broad network of people at all levels of society. Political parties can seek these criteria to rule in an area where the market and quality are prioritized.
This article focuses on the preparation and participation of Indonesian female candidates in winning the Indonesian political contest in 2024. We focus on the specifics of this research in the Riau Archipelago Province area, where the patriarchal system is less prevalent than in other regions of Indonesia. However, the number of female candidates selected remained the same. According to data from the Riau Islands Province General Election Commission (2019), women won 6 seats (13.3%) for the DPRD Riau Islands Province in 2014 and 5 seats (11.1%) in 2019. As a result, our research focuses on efforts to increase female candidate participation and preparation for the upcoming 2024 general election.

Political Environment
The political environment is synonymous with the public's preferences for past attitudes of candidates toward policies, morals, social issues, and other phenomena related to political actions (Kuklinski et al., 2001). In the political environment, the comparative test is very close because it evaluates a set of objects that will fight (Druckman & Lupia, 2016). For example, previous political practices compared to the candidate's branding campaign, candidate identity, candidate dynasty, gender, material power, parties, and masses, as well as any attitudes and social interactions that are taking place (Folke et al., 2021). As a result, changes in people's judgment preferences take a long time to gain spontaneous recognition and reality, so an attitude shift is required to provide a stimulus for good political practice ahead of the continuation period (Aarøe, 2011). Furthermore, capacity building at the end of the year is required to capture the community's attention (Ben-Nun Bloom et al., 2015;Bolsen & Druckman, 2015).
A representative political environment, or "political heuristic", provides options and opportunities for citizens to express themselves through political parties and/or independent channels (Savigny & Temple, 2010). This practice is visible in environmental 200 protection, where women actively anticipate land and forest fires in Indonesia (Purnomo et al., 2021), forming small groups that are aware of a green environment rather than being converted into the mining industry and other business sectors (Sundari et al., 2022). Furthermore, democracy for women can promote social justice through fair and transparent democratic practices (Sulastri et al., 2020;Wiyono et al., 2023).
However, in choosing candidates to be nominated, this representative attitude is frequently contradictory; domination is often in the incumbent, male candidates, party leaders, and parents, and it is rare to nominate women in political parties (Hayes, 2011;Wardani & Subekti, 2021). This political environment erodes democracy in politics because it denies broad, free public participation, and everyone has the right to compete in local and national political contests despite their low chances of becoming political winners (Schneider & Carroll, 2020).
There are empirical and practical analyses to investigate the effects of various skewed political environmental conditions; democratic political practices in Brazil (2012) attempt to include women in every executive and legislative contest (major 13.44%, Council 32.14%, Federal Deputies 19.09%, State Deputies 25.88%) (Arvate et al., 2017). The percentage of women in politics in America is much higher, at 27.6%, compared to only 25.6% in Europe and 18.8% in Asia. Continuity is being pushed in stages, as the Republican Party and Democratic Party did in the 2018 election by involving women in competence with a percentage of 45-55% for each party. The situation regarding women's involvement aims to increase youth and female political participation because they have the potential to serve as role models for society (Arvate et al., 2021;Cepaluni & Hidalgo, 2016). On the other hand, a direct correlation exists if they do not win the election, which causes other women to become desperate to participate (Folke et al., 2021;Hayes, 2011).
The practice of the political environment, particularly women's participation in politics in Brazil, has gradually increased. They believe that prominent women serve as role models for other women by activating internal mechanisms that alter their standard social models to achieve similar positions (Arvate et al., 2017). Evidence of the influence of role models on women has been found in several works in the economic and political literature (Cepaluni & Hidalgo, 2016), using the same identification strategy to observe the influence of female role models on female candidates and the importance of prominent women leaders' performance to women's political aspirations (Brollo & Troiano, 2016). Institutionally, dependent on a political system in which seats are reserved for women, the investigations are necessary because women are not always presented as winners in the political arena, so the perception of women as winners is not the dominant feature of the world of politics.

Stereotype Gender in Politic
Electoral competition is a battleground for power and is always associated with men triumphing over women (Burns, 2007). This competition always conditions gender quality; this perception becomes a standard and conventional mindset that is embedded when confronted with political opponents I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I  I I I

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of the same quality; quality male candidates will outperform quality female candidates (Barnes et al., 2017). Furthermore, despite having the same quality, gender comparisons always provide an overview of the limitations of movement. Barnes (2017) describes public evaluations of female candidates, which show that they face obstacles on their way to the office. Then Fox and Lawless (2004) said qualified female candidates are different from eligible male candidates. As a result, when the quality of the field of opposition candidates is considered, gender disparities and significant gender differences emerge; the quality of women out of office faces obstacles that women in power do not meet (Carroll & Sanbonmatsu, 2009). Because of the complexities of the boundaries that exist and will exist, women choose to withdraw, refrain from becoming involved, or gradually withdraw from political activities. Gender stereotypes in politics justify assessing someone based on the group they categorize, such as the party in power or the incumbent (Hayes, 2011). Stereotypes are assumed to be intuitive shortcuts and strategies humans use to simplify complex things and aid in quick decision-making (McGarty et al., 2002;Robbins & Judge, 2009). The commonly used concept of potential candidates is used as a general description to represent the group as a whole, but the accuracy of the results is frequently questioned because one person only sometimes determines the outcome of a large group (Cox et al., 2012).
Stereotype conceptualizations and theories contain contradictory elements in the form of positive and negative stereotypes. Prejudice and discrimination are negative stereotypes associated with negative attitudes or behaviors. Positive stereotypes are not harmful to another person or group, whereas negative stereotypes harm another person or group (Cox et al., 2012;Robbins & Judge, 2009). Dolan (2010Dolan ( , 2014 discovered that the modernization era and the high needs and opportunities for women's involvement in non-electoral aspects render gender stereotypes unimportant in political party candidacy. They only provide unilateral borders and maintain traditional attitudes and interactions (Fulton, 2012). Of course, they need help to participate in elections for leadership positions. The influence of women in legislative-executive seats on political performance related to equality of quality of life, employment, education, health, and equal rights of men and women is a positive practice in Braga & Scervini's (2017) research in Brazil.
Between the 2014 and 2019 political elections in Indonesia, the proportion of women in the Indonesian legislature increased significantly (17.4% in the National Parliament/DPR and 25% in the Regional Representative Council/DPD) (Wardani & Subekti, 2021). In contrast to the period preceding the reform, the Soeherto regime severely restricted freedom of expression, opinion, association, and other forms of liberty. As a result, patriarchal culture thrives and is dominant in every region; women's access to education is restricted; they are economically dependent on their husbands; the role of a housewife is difficult to maintain in parliament; and they are apathetic toward political activity and tend to be passive during general elections.
This increase is viewed as evidence of the success of the General Elections Policy of Law Number 12 of 2003. Furthermore, since the implementation of the 30% quota, affirmative attitudes have increased and been glorified for women I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I  I I I I I I Journal of Governance Volume 8, Issue 2, June 2023 202 who enjoy politics. Sisterhood solidarity, which women can only fight for because of shared experiences among women, is a myth that must be replaced with sisterhood-brotherhood solidarity to fight for the interests of the larger community. This ideal proportion boosts women's confidence in their ability to compete and express their aspirations more broadly.
On the other hand, and this should be noted, this ideal proportion is also a fraudulent way for dynastic politics to use family members to gain power, even if the results are satisfactory for the Bontang-Kalimantan region (Akbar & Purnomo, 2019). Gender quotas are used by major parties to pursue positive discrimination in favor of women and close the gender gap in political representation (Romli & Efriza, 2021). The results of the polemic appeared to provide a new loophole for fraud in the electoral and party systems; the obligation to meet the 30% quota was met. But the process was very disappointing because the attitudes of political and party dynasties had also increased significantly, having an impact on policy outcomes that did not benefit women in general.
It is critical to dig deeper into the dominant debate that explicitly discusses women's involvement in political quandaries that require political parties to meet a 30% quota. However, discussing achieving or fulfilling these quotas needs to be discussed in depth, referring to the emptiness of the discussion. It is necessary to examine the modern political environment, which ignores gender stereotypes in candidate selection, to address the emptiness of the debate. The closeness of female candidates to party leaders, norms, warmth and competence, model and influence of female candidates, party networks, family members of party leaders, and transparency of leadership authority in determining candidates are all factors to consider. Overall, it will directly impact women's participation in the Indonesian political election in 2024.

Method
This research is a mixed qualitative and quantitative study; this method is appropriate for the confidentiality and complexity of obtaining data, which are dominated by confidentiality and necessitate an intense personal approach to delve deeper (Creswell, 2009). Because the characteristics of each source differ, caution is required when solving the various complexities encountered; thus, a personal approach with inductive and I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I  I I I

Lestari et al., Preparation for Indonesian Election 2024: Women's Participation in Political Contest
203 deductive features is needed to explore more concrete abstractions in research (Cyr, 2017). Furthermore, in social and political science, an analysis of the interaction of social processes and events is required to map current and future events. Several previous studies on political dynasties, black campaigns, and political patriarchy used mixed methods and a personal approach to obtain important data that was not previously available to the public (Fatimatuzzahra & Dewi, 2021). The research took several steps to collect interview and questionnaire data. The second step is to collect the questionnaire results, filter the content, and group the results. On a scale of 0.00-1.00, we divided the results into four categories: low (0.01-0.25), low-medium (0.26-0.50), medium-high (0.51-0.75), and high (0.76-1.00). Each questionnaire contains ten (10-point) questions about the indicator, with a total score ranging from 1 to 100. Compared to political parties, we believe that each party categorized as "high" responds better to women's participation. Others are classified as "medium-high," "lowmedium," or "low." The collected data was then analyzed to determine the relationship between the political environment category and gender stereotypes in politics. An analytical test with manual coding was used with the NVIVO 12+ software for data reality and accuracy. Auto-coding increases the likelihood of margin errors and duplication. For more accurate results, we perform each analysis with the NVIVO 12+ software and a Pearson correlation calculation model. Furthermore, the findings are presented in the form of images, tables, and narration to clarify the validation and debate of the theory employed.

Result and Discussion Political Environment in Riau Island
Since 2004, the people have competed directly and openly for the election of presidents, regional heads, and legislature members. The change in the scheme demanded the democratic reform of general elections from a representation system to direct elections. It is a hallmark of democracy to find leaders who are by the people's choice (Ardanareswari, 2020; Prihatini, 2019 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I  I I I I I I Journal of Governance Volume 8, Issue 2, June 2023 204 extraordinary event because it can invite the community to make large-scale changes to the structure of society. Our research was conducted in stages with complex descriptive analysis to examine the preparations made by political parties to prepare female candidates to run in the Indonesian general election in 2024. The collection was accomplished through questionnaires distributed to the six major parties in the Riau Archipelago Province and structured interviews with each party's leader and member. The next step is to put the indicators we use to the test, after which they will be analyzed based on the amount of preparation they have made for female candidates and the amount of victory they will achieve in the 2024 elections. According to Table 1, we identify political parties in Riau Archipelago Province based on gender sensitivity and women's competence through the following factors: party atmosphere, identity, network, norms, authority, social preferences, loyalty, budget, planning, knowledge, attitude, existence, and role model. Previous research conducted within a national scope (Wardani & Subekti, 2021) found that identifying women's participation and wins was very high and increased from 2014 to 2019. They believed this increase occurred because political parties were very similar to the dynastic model in that they voted for potential candidates from family members such as wives, daughters, or sisters. Besides, they don't value shrewdness in politics; what is needed is being able to speak in front of the public with the narrative or text that has been provided and an additional label such as "it's time for women to speak up." This study's correlation with Akbar & Purnomo's (2019) research on dynastic politics in Bontang City is very close. The governor and mayor's extended family fill the executive and legislative sections, and the people are not concerned because they can run the wheels of government properly and according to what they promised during the campaign.
What is interesting to note is that women won legislative seats in the Riau Archipelago Province at a rate of only 6 or 13.3% in 2014 and 5 or 11.1% in 2019. There was no increase, but there was a decrease in female victories as it became increasingly difficult for women to compete in legislative elections. Even though there is less competition or potential candidates than in other regions, elected seats for women are extremely difficult to obtain. In terms of competitive quality, they are the incumbents who won in 2014 and will compete again in the 2019-2024 legislative session. Women's participation in legislative elections in the Riau Islands province has been low since the candidate nomination stage, with only 27.45% in 2014 and 34.5% in 2019. The increase in competition was noticeable, but it was not statistically significant compared to Riau Province, which had 38.5% in 2014 and 44.5% in 2019, and West Sumatra Province, which had 34.80% in 2014 and 42.5% in 2019.
This disparity is quite surprising given that the areas dominated by the economy, business, trade, and industry are allegedly capable of being carried out by women who are known to be capable of conducting diplomacy and negotiations (Aspinall & Berenschot, 2019). The evaluation also focuses on how they use the promising political-representative era to provide opportunities for every citizen to compete, but there needs to be a more visible effort to capitalize on existing opportunities (Savigny & Temple, 2010). As a result, democratic values in politics that are given to the public to participate I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I  I I I Lestari et al., Preparation for Indonesian Election 2024: Women's Participation in Political Contest 205 in politics broadly are reduced (Schneider & Carroll, 2020). Of course, every party is concerned about meeting the 30% quota for female candidacy in 2024 and efforts to attract women to join political parties and compete in the 2024 legislature. The results of the two election periods (2014 and 2019) are increasingly revealing the wide gap that occurs as a result of their inability to fill 13.3% (2014) and 11.1% (2019) of parliamentary seats in the Riau Archipelago. On the other hand, those who join must have specifications that are from the point of view of political parties, as well as the same ideas, goals, vision, and mission as political parties. The most crucial factor is that prospective candidates must be able to adapt to a changing political environment. The results of the 12 indicators we used against the six dominant parties in the Riau Archipelago Province show significant differences. Each has characteristics that determine future views in response to changing political conditions. Although some of them share the same ideology, their approaches to achieving the goal differ, particularly in the recruitment of female candidates for the 2024 election. (Table 2). The researchers' findings add significance to the diversity of research results for each of the major parties in the Riau Archipelago Province, with NASDEM as the ruling party carrying the pattern of women's cadre formation and candidacy for a long time. Women's identity has grown since women were appointed Deputy Governor of the Riau Islands, which has strengthened the direction of women's political views, campaigns, and other approaches that are always filled with strategic gender issues. The goal is clear: to attract the attention of young women, career women, and adult women so that it is closely related to the role model indicator (0.841), increasing existence (0.926), and social preferences (0.852), all of which are becoming increasingly common in society. Apart from the diversity of beliefs, careers, and other plural matters, the issue of women in the modern era has become an important matter for them after the economy, development, and trade. The Indonesian political system's democratic journey is a challenge that has become a mandatory choice in the modern political system that addresses women's issues (Wahyudi, 2018). It is hoped that establishing a current democratic political system will enable people's lives to be prosperous, just, and prosperous according to national ideals (Fathani & Qodir, 2020). The reform era, which has lasted more than 20 years, has provided an open space for political parties to carry out better arrangements, particularly in terms of women's participation, to improve the political environment, which is vulnerable and has negative views (Hillman, 2018;Shah et al., 2019). The political environment, which tends to fluctuate, allows parties to be dynamic in facing the 2024 election. It is essential to emphasize the importance of consistently strengthening their identities to capture the public's attention.
The identities of NASDEM and PDIP are dominant in the Riau Archipelago and nationally; so far, NASDEM has excelled in attracting the local community's attention because the vice governor is filled by Nasdem and female cadres. Because the chairperson of the party and the DPR-RI are both women, the PDIP dominates at the national level. This means that the tugof-war for public attention in the last six months has been significant regarding gender and women's issues, regardless of political dynasties' attitudes or other privileged matters. Campaigns and speeches calling for social and gender justice, social resilience, and gender politics are always covered by political parties, but not all parties accept them due to the nature of patriarchy and conventional politics, which always prioritize men (Druckman & Lupia, 2016;Schneider & Carroll, 2020).
Furthermore, the political environment is always closely related to the authority of each party in determining their direction and attitude, such as in the PDIP party, which women lead. Strong authority is increasingly sending a strong signal and providing hope for every female cadre in the region to compete in local and regional politics. On the other hand, it becomes straightforward for them to meet the 30% quota, and they even excel in terms of the party with the highest achievement for the elected female candidate. Of course, with political parties' diverse and dynamic attitudes toward women providing additional support and preferences, the potential for increased public stimulation to participate and be active in the implementation of elections grows, providing new hope for female candidates (Ben-Nun Bloom et al., 2015).
In contrast, the political environment for religious parties to compete to increase women's participation is tricky or inversely proportional to nationalist parties. The cadre pattern that prioritizes social norms and activities is a problem for dominating the plural Riau Islands region; as a result, community preferences and support are reduced, and it will be challenging to realize a political map in the future. Conventional attitudes and patriarchal politics are significant obstacles for them, as are the dominance of men who control the party and the political dynasty of party leaders, including their (female) family members. Because of the cultural differences in the political environments of each region, this analysis differs slightly from the other areas.
Inherence with these findings strengthens the political environment on the map and political culture of Indonesia ,   I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I  I I I Lestari et al., Preparation for Indonesian Election 2024: Women's Participation in Political Contest 207 particularly the Riau Archipelago Province, which can still be easily understood and has few differences from other studies. The dominance of party issues remains the same: women's political-heuristic attitude is not wide open, so women tend not to want to join political parties (Savigny & Temple, 2010). Strong gender stereotypes for religious parties, conventional attitudes of party members, and male views are better than women's (Burns, 2007;Sanbonmatsu & Dolan, 2009) further clarify gender disparities, and significant gender differences do exist and are consistent across political party bodies (Barnes et al., 2017;Wardani & Subekti, 2021), particularly in the Riau Islands. The complexity of the boundaries that exist and will exist makes it increasingly clear that social justice in politics only applies to a few parties, resulting in the low participation of women in elections and political parties.

Figure 1. The Assessment of Women Participation in Riau Island Election in 2024
Based on Parties The rapid growth of political parties demonstrates that democracy is present in the larger community to accommodate aspirations and fight for people's rights and desires for social justice (Duile & Bens, 2017;Sulastri et al., 2020). Belief in women as pure and idealistic change agents is critical to I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I  I I I I I I Journal of Governance Volume 8, Issue 2, June 2023 208 criticism and rationale, so women's participation in political development is very beneficial to the realization of national political resilience (Prihatini, 2019). Women's rights in politics are guaranteed in the 1979 "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women" (CEDAW) concerning the elimination of discrimination against women in Articles 7 and 8, Number 23, identification of protection to guarantee equality between men and women, equality of opportunity for men and women for public office based on election, and equality of opportunity for men and women for public office based on election (Luhulima, 2006).
In practice, there are issues concerning the dilemma of gender roles and positions in the Indonesian political system, and the reason is apparent: women's inherent view is to act as second in command after men. Currently, patronclient relations (father and son), family, and brotherly relations dominate the political culture inherent in political parties. The researchers' findings state that gender stereotypes are occurring, and we estimate that they will continue until the 2024 election. This does not happen suddenly, but from the perspective of two general elections (2014 and 2019) related to women's participation in political parties or legislative seats. The lines are clear, and each party has characteristics for recruiting women, regeneration, and nominating women based on their perspective. Even so, finding women who meet the criteria and are capable of competing in the legislature and government is difficult, particularly in the Riau Islands province.

Conclusion
Our findings will be helpful in efforts to increase women's participation in political parties and political structures in the Riau Archipelago and throughout Indonesia. The analysis discovered very high gender stereotypes in politics, from recruitment and candidacy to nominations ahead of electoral competition, using qualitative and quantitative statistical research methods to look at the phenomenon of women in political parties and legislative seats.
Women's representation in the Riau Islands parliament has been minimal in the last two elections, which will continue in the 2024 election. Teenage girls and adult women from various occupational backgrounds will continue to be the second choice when selecting political candidates.
Intervention against the 30% quota for women is regarded as merely a formality, after which full support is given to male candidates. The concept of patriarchal politics continues to dominate and control almost all parties, which is significant because of the political culture required to gain power. Finally, to ensure maximum female representation, the Election Law may need to regulate or increase the percentage of female representation, which was initially 30% to 50%; an even more extreme rule is to provide a strategic path for women to be elected to parliament. For example, each region must fill 30% of its parliamentary quota with women and/or other schemes. Increasing women's political passion, despite being considered cheating, could be a solution to improving the national political system.