Public Perception of Islamic Political Parties Ahead of the 2024 General Elections in Indonesia

Abstract

This research aims to map public perceptions of political parties ahead of the 2024 election contestation. Public trust in the performance of political parties fluctuates along with political and economic dynamics. Indonesia's political conditions ahead of the 2024 elections are filled with sensitive issues that allow public reactions to the performance of the government and the performance of political parties as a government support system. This research will use a quantitative study approach using data from 180 respondents divided into six provinces on the island of Java, namely Banten, DKI Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and DI Yogyakarta. The theoretical approach used to dissect public perceptions with the ABC Theory approach which focuses on the assessment of Attention, Behaviour, and Cognition. The combination of the three will show how the public assesses political parties, and provide an overview of the performance of political parties so far to influence public perception. Public credibility towards parties is a complex issue. The ups and downs of public trust in a party are commonplace and unavoidable. It happens because it is caused by several factors, political factors are reasons or causes that arise from the political aspects of people who do not want to vote. Such as distrust of the party, not being able to vote for existing candidates, or not believing that legislative elections/elections will bring change and improvement. Public distrust of political parties is not only caused by the behavior of party politicians but is also influenced by the performance of the party as a whole and this also has an impact on the image of political parties which ultimately affects public perceptions of the party concerned. In the reform era, political parties did not have a firm political orientation and program. The consequence is that parties fail to represent the aspirations of the community because they do not narrow their political orientation and work programs to specific issues that occur in the community. After all, each party tries to cover all dimensions of the problem without a platform. This makes people's votes in every election seem futile because every aspiration and work program promised does not solve all the social problems they have faced so far. Moreover, when people only get promises of welfare before the election then afterward their relationship with the party never seems to be close, because when political parties have gotten their political needs after the election, they slowly withdraw from the community without completing the narratives that have been started. Community participation in elections is not only limited to involvement in the political process, but more than that they expect a change for the better in line with the will of the community together.