HumasUPNVJ - The 2024 Ministry of Education and Culture DRTPM Grant Research Team consisting of the Faculty of Law of UPN "Veteran" Jakarta, Budi Luhur University, and the State Finance Polytechnic STAN carried out a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) activity in Surakarta City with the theme "Renewal of General Election Regulations: Design of Obligations of Election Organizers and Participants in Fulfilling the Political Rights of Persons with Disabilities."

This activity took place at Tirai Bamboe Resto, Surakarta City, with the UPNVJ research team chaired by the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law Taupiqqurrahman, SH, M.Kn who is also the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law UPN “Veteran” Jakarta. The members of the research team consisted of Rianda Dirkareshza, SH., MH from UPNVJ, Dr. Umaimah from UBL and Dani Sugiri, SE, SST, M.Ak from STAN.

The FGD activity was attended by representatives from several agencies and organizations of people with disabilities, including Sri Lestari, SH, MM as Head of Domestic Politics and Community Organizations of the National Unity and Politics Agency (Bakesbangpol) of Surakarta City; Yustinus Arya, Commissioner of the General Election Commission (KPU) of Surakarta City; Santi Yuliawati, SE, M.Sc. as Head of Administration and General Affairs of the Regional Revenue Agency (Bapenda) of Surakarta City; and representatives from the Association of People with Disabilities of Indonesia (PPDI) of Central Java and Solo. The activity was opened with remarks from Rianda Dirkareshza, SH, MH

After the opening session, the event continued with a presentation from resource person Sri Lestari, SH, MM entitled "Support and Facilitation of Bakesbangpol in the Implementation of the 2024 Election and Regional Election."

In her presentation, Sri explained the tasks and programs of Bakesbangpol, one of which is Increasing the role of political parties and educational institutions through political education and the development of ethics and political culture. The program is implemented in several activities such as grants to political parties, KPU grants, Bawaslu grants, Polres grants, Kodim grants, political education, and other activities.

Sri also believes that people with disabilities still receive less attention from the government. One example is seen from the collection of data on people with disabilities that is not good and integrated. This is due to the different methods of data collection from various Regional Apparatus Organizations (OPD) so that the results obtained are always different. In addition, there is also no obligation for community organizations to report to Bakesbangpol regarding people with disabilities because there is no regulation.

The event continued with the presentation of material on “Partisan Financing in Fulfilling Political Rights” with resource person Dani Sugiri, SE, SST, M.Ak. as a member of the research team and lecturer at the State Finance Polytechnic STAN. In his presentation, Dani said that there is a right for people with disabilities to channel their potential in politics, such as running as regional head candidates, and this right is one of the state's obligations.

Dani explained about alternative routes in organizing partisan financing for political parties with the aim of increasing their compliance in including people with disabilities and also fulfilling the requirements for participation in elections, namely by providing incentives or rewards for political parties' compliance with regulations.

In addition, political parties can also be subject to disincentives or sanctions for disobedience. There also needs to be a pragmatic alternative path in the form of an allocation of funding for coaching if there are cadres with disabilities in the political party membership.

The activity was then continued with a discussion session, where the research team and participants exchanged ideas to find solutions and input that could be useful for fulfilling the political rights of people with disabilities.

Bakesbangpol stated that so far, socialization has been mostly focused on new voters only, so it is understandable that people with disabilities still receive less attention.

The KPU also conveyed the challenges of organizing elections, including the determination of voters with disabilities at birth only, where data collection should be carried out at each TPS level by direct questioning methods. The correct data collection is not only people with disabilities from birth, but people with disabilities at the time of data collection.

In addition to discussions from Bakesbangpol and KPU, there were also opinions and input from PPDI, namely regarding political education which is not only provided to people with disabilities, but also to election organizers.

There was also input regarding data collection that should be carried out based on projects and the data obtained should be shared by the KPU with organizations for people with disabilities so that matching can be carried out.

PPDI also touched on the issue of socialization that was indeed carried out, but with minimal demonstration equipment and access for people with disabilities, including the deaf.