FAIR ELECTION : Everyone reserve the right to vote and to be voted!

Election process in dormitory to choose new head of dormitory committee

When we hear a word “election”, what’s on our mind? A democratic party whis is held by our country once every five years to choose our next governor? Yes, that is not wrong and that is what mostly people think about election. But, since I became the students of SMAN 10 Malang and lived in dormitory, this paradigm has been changed.

Three weeks ago, there were an election to choose the head of dormitory committee in my dormitory. That was held by captain of 9 houses and it was commanded by Mr. Muslich, our Head of Dormitory. The election process was very interesting. The process and the rules of this election were made as good as the rules of the national election for choosing our new governors. There were an interview test, opened campaign, and public debate. They also made a rule said that the one who will become the new head of dormitory committee have to get at least 125 votes of the students.

And after all of those election process has been done, the students were free to choose their new leader in dormitory. I was there –of course– and I became the witness so I saw the counting process. First candidate, Nando and Mini got 113 votes while Tedy and Bahrul got 101 votes. The rest chose Pandu and Nizam. Suddenly, the committee made an unilateral decision. They decided that Nando and Mini became the new head and vice head of dormitory committee although they get less than 125 votes, as the rule said before. Some of my friends said, “ It’s ok. I know that the committee were very tired to made this election. So they don’t need to make the second round election. “ While my other friends said “ It’s not fair. They break their own rule and it makes me dissappointed! ”.

So, what do you think about this kind of case, when the election process doesn’t ran as the rule said? Should we call it as an unfair election while the principle of election in Indonesia which are LUBER JURDIL has been applied there? As we know, fair in this case means all people reserve the right to vote and to be voted if they are suit with the criterias. In my opinion, the election process in dormitory has applied it, so we can call it as a fair election. When we talk about the violated rules, I think it is just about the mechanism of the elction process and it is not a big problem as long as the candidates has been agree with that decision. So, essentially, the elction process around me has been fair and it has applied the principle of election. Oh ya, by the way, congratulations Nando and Mini! Good luck for making this dormitory better! J