Incumbency Disadvantages (Local Election and Populism in Indonesia)

Abstract

Abstract-Incumbent is a very favorable political position on the election. The results of the study in many kinds of literature suggest that a strong candidate in the election is the incumbent because it has resources and can use its position to campaign. This paper shows a different fact, where the incumbent experienced a defeat in local elections by raising cases in Aceh and South Sulawesi in the 2017 election. In two areas where field research was conducted intensively before and after the local election showed that incumbent policies that did not integrate with populist policies during local heads affected voters choices. The main argument in this paper explains that a policy that is not populist can cause incumbency disadvantage. The more populist policies carried out by the incumbent, the more likely it is to win. This article concludes that populism is a major trend in local elections so that candidates without welfare and pragmatic issues seem difficult to win voters and win elections.