INTRODUCTION

General elections are a political means in realizing people's sovereignty as mandated by the 1945 Constitution article 1 paragraph (2) which reads, "Sovereignty is in the hands of the people and implemented according to the Constitution". Every citizen has the right to use his/her voice in a democratic political process. Article 22E Paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution has outlined that democratic elections are direct, general, free, confidential, honest and fair. Furthermore, the Election Law adds two more criteria, namely transparency and accountability (Budiardjo, 2008).

Elections are an important instrument in measuring whether a country is democratic or not (Simamora, 2011). Through general elections, every citizen has the right to use his/ her voice to elect a leader through a direct, free and secret democratic process. Although substantially, elections are to legally elect leadership and gain community legitimacy, but the electoral system and forms of public participation in various countries are quite diverse.

In modern political analysis, public participation is an important indicator in measuring whether a country is democratic or not. The higher public participation indicates the opening of democratic spaces (Anang, 2020). In simple terms, political participation is an individual or individual activity in political life and directly or indirectly influences government policies. Although political participation is very important in a democratic country, not all citizens are willing to voluntarily cast their votes. Like the implementation in other countries, the democratic party in Indonesia is also marked by various violations and fraud (electoral malpractices). In the context of Indonesia, which is building a healthy political culture, the proliferation of money politics, vote inflating, black campaigns, elections that are not in accordance with the rules to the loss of public suffrage are some of the types of violations that are often found (Muhaimin, 2016). This violation will continue with the election disputes that threaten the integrity of the election. Without strong structural and functional oversight, high-cost elections will only produce leaders whose legality and legitimacy are doubtful (Surbakti, Supriyanto, & Santoso, 2011). Whereas the parameters of a democratic election are marked by the integrity of the implementation process and the integrity of the election results. Then high-cost elections will only produce leaders whose legality and legitimacy are doubted (Harada & Smith, 2014).

This has led to apathy among young voters, which is one of the important pillars of Indonesia's democratic life. The number of youths who choose not to vote is increasing (Alkautsar & Suharno, 2021). Whereas the involvement of youth in the general election has been regulated in Law no. 40 of 2008 Article 17 paragraph (3). The law states that the active role of youth as agents of change is realized by developing one of them is political education and democratization.

Looking at the slices that exist in elements of Indonesian society, Law Number 40 of 2009 states that youth are those who are in the age range of 16 to 30 years with a percentage of 24.27 percent of the approximately 255 million Indonesian people. As for the age group under 16 years, there are around 28.81 percent and for the age group above 30 years there are around 46.92 percent (BPS-Susenas Kor 2017). From the point of view of political contestation, it can be interpreted that the youth group is a source of voice that should be reckoned with in this regard. Youth becomes land that need to be involved in determining this political battle. However, in fact, when viewed from another perspective, the younger generation is not only a mere voice barn, but far behind it, they are the people who will continue the nation's democracy.

Youth have idealism and enthusiasm that are needed in building a democratic life in Indonesia. However, many youths decided not to participate in the general election. It's possible that people don't vote because they think things don't change, whoever is chosen (Silaban, 2016). There is a tendency to feel dissatisfied with the political and electoral system in Indonesia. The increase in abstentions in 2004 was caused by public distrust of Megawati's government and the building of the political system that existed at that time (Darwin, 2018). The non-functioning of community representative institutions, especially the DPR, DPRD, and MPR, as well as the rampant cases of corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN) involving members of the people's representative institutions are the reasons for the increase in the abstention rate in the 2004 election.

In the context of the election in Jayapura City, the role of youth is very crucial. In the 2019 election, based on data from the KPU, the Permanent Voters List (DPT) in the city of Jayapura was 300,752 voters. The number of Permanent Candidate Lists (DCT) is 588 people, with a total of 1,262 polling stations. This figure is the largest in Papua Province. The high number of DPT, DCT and TPS shows the complexity of the 2019 general election. With a very high cost, the 2019 election is expected to involve the participation of the entire community, including youth.

However, the results of the initial discussion conducted by the City Bawaslu and the Jayapura City Campus Coalition in February 2019 showed a tendency for youth not to vote. Various initial reasons were obtained ranging from a lack of understanding of the rules to dissatisfaction with the existing political system. However, it has not been able to be elaborated in depth on why youth decide to vote or not to vote. Therefore, it is very important to understand how youth perceive the election (Limilia & Ariadne, 2018). In the context of the city of Jayapura which is full of social and political dynamics, it is very important to hear the voices of youth. It is necessary to understand how students perceive the 2019 election. Their experiences, political cultural context, voter tastes, and various variables can influence youth's view of elections. This perception forms a reference to youth politics. However, there is not much literature that specifically discusses youth in the city of Jayapura.

In Jayapura, there have been calls from certain groups not to vote as a form of protest against the state for not fulfilling civil and political rights in Papua. Several abstain campaigns have been spread through social media among the youth community as well as the general public. Even some communities such as AMP (Papuan Student Alliance) and FriWest Papua have declared their decision not to cast their ballots. However, of course, the voices of these youths do not represent the voices of youth as a whole in Papua. Therefore, it is very important to look at the dynamics of youth and the 2019 election.

It is hoped that this research will contribute to better understanding youth perceptions and elections and how to reference youth politics ahead of the 2019 general election in the city of Jayapura.

Political participation is a term used in carrying out political activities. Several definitions have been put forward by various political scientists about political participation. Political participation is the voluntary activities of citizens through which they take part in the process of electing rulers, and directly or indirectly, in the process of forming public policies (McClosky, 1968). Political participation is the activity of citizens acting as individuals, which is intended to influence decision-making by the government. Participation can be individual or collective, organized, or spontaneous, legal or illegal, permanent or sporadic, peaceful or violent, legal or illegal effective. many directly aim to influence the selection of state officials and/or the actions taken by them (Von Muhlenlbrock, 1979).

Participation is carried out because citizens as members of society believe that their activities have an effect or have an impact or are often referred to as political efficacy (Roza, 2020). Therefore, in democracy there is an assumption that the higher the level of people's participation, the better, on the contrary, a low level of participation is seen as not good. Some of the reasons why participation is low include that citizens are not interested or care about participating or there is no opportunity or if the people think that their participation in politics does not give any influence or if the rulers or leaders of the state pay less attention to the interests or aspirations of the community and only prioritize the interests of the people. only a group of people.

According to Joan Nelson, participation according to acceptance from the community is participation that is autonomous and mobilized. The difference between the two lies in whether the participation is voluntary, at the initiative of the (members) of the community, or whether the participation is on the initiative of the (members) of the community or whether the participation is directed by the government (other parties). If the participation is on the community's own initiative and if it is carried out voluntarily, it is referred to as autonomous participation, whereas if it is deployed or there is an element of pressure from the government (the superiors or those in power), it is referred to as mobilized participation. Participation in general is not only done in general elections. For example, by involving community members to support the government, for example through development programs or other activities that take place in the community. Various activities outside the general election called participation are for example those carried out by political parties and community organizations such as youth organizations, environmental organizations, labor organizations, farmers and fishermen, youth, women and so on.

Elections are one of the most common mechanisms of a democratic country to determine what the people choose as a whole (Arniti, 2020). This mechanism is the best mechanism to ask the community directly about their choice. The most common thing to do in elections is to ask who has the right to become people's representatives in parliament or become the leader of a country. The nature of this general election shows that its function is to provide and strengthen political legitimacy to the authorities so that Existence, policies and work programs can be carried out.

Universal elections are institutions as well as political practices that allow the formation of a representative government. The general election is also called the political market, meaning that the general election is the market politics where individuals or communities interact to implement social contracts (community agreements) between general election participants (political parties) and voters (people) who have the right to vote after first carrying out a series of political activities which include campaigns, political advertisements through printed mass media, audio (radio), as well as audio-visual (television) as well as other media such as banners, pamphlets, leaflets and even interpersonal communication in the form of face to face (face to face) or lobbying containing other political promises in order to convince voters so that during the voting they can determine their choice of one or the other one political party (Hasan, 2014).

In the midst of the vortex of debate between elections and human rights issues, the perception of youth is very important to understand. Various fluctuations related to the position of youth in elections, especially in the city of Jayapura reflect the importance of an in-depth study of how youth view the election. Therefore, this study aims to answer two important questions, namely; (1) how do youths perceive the 2019 election in Jayapura city?, (2) what is the form of youth participation in the Jayapura city election?

METHOD

This study uses qualitative methods in explaining youth perceptions of elections (Sugiyono, 2019). The strength of this research lies in its qualitative narrative. The choice of narrative method is very appropriate in bringing out the voices of those who are marginalized. This is in accordance with the research target, namely youth who often do not get enough attention in elections. Through a qualitative narrative approach, youth perceptions and references will be analyzed by exploring their narratives. Narratives, memories of the past, present worries and hopes for future changes become life stories that are the target of this research. This narrative method is also where the researcher only provides the main questions to guide the narrative process, but the main issues are raised by the participants themselves.

The scope of this research will focus on how youth perceptions about elections and how these perceptions shape their political references. Also to be seen regarding the form of voter participation. The population of this study is all youth in the city of Jayapura. However, the sample will focus on youth in 3 districts, namely Heram, Abepura and North Jayapura districts. The selection of these two districts is considered representative based on the distribution of the population. And in these three districts it became the center for the distribution of students and youth.

Research data will be collected through in-depth interviews with various youths from different cultural and social backgrounds. Interviews will be conducted personally or in the form of focused discussions (Moleong, 2021). In addition, researchers will also conduct participatory observations before, during the election and after the election to see the phenomena that occur in the research location. Supporting data sources are in the form of documents that can be in the form of reports, notes. as well as other written materials which are official documents relevant to the research theme.

The data collected will be analyzed through coding techniques. The results of the interviews spoken by the youth will be grouped based on certain themes. Through the narration, it will be found how the perceptions of youth, their references but also their hopes for the future that can be used as recommendations for the election organizers. The strength of this approach is the narrative because it is able to raise the theme of changes in the past, present, and future (life stories).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

April 17, 2019 was a simultaneous general election held throughout Indonesia to elect the president and vice president as well as the legislature at the national, provincial and district levels. This election is a democratic party for Indonesia to conduct elections every five years, and this year is the first history to hold elections simultaneously with candidates. The people who participated in this election exercised their right to vote by punching 5 ballot papers, namely, first, the yellow color of the election ballot to elect Members of the People's Representative Council (DPR RI), in accordance with the number of Electoral Districts for Members of the DPR. Second, the red color of election ballots to elect members of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD RI) consists of ballots for the election of members of the DPD. Third, The blue color of the election ballot is to elect members of the Provincial DPRD (Provincial DPRD) in accordance with the number of Electoral Districts for the Members of the Provincial DPRD. Fourth, the green color of election ballots to elect Members of the Regency/City Regional People's Representative Council (Regency/City DPRD) in accordance with the number of Electoral Districts for Regency/City DPRD members. Fifth, the ballots for the presidential and vice-presidential elections are grayed out. The color ballots consist of the ballots of the Candidate Pairs for the presidential and vice presidential elections. green color election ballots to elect Members of the Regency/City Regional People's Representative Council (Regency/City DPRD) in accordance with the number of Electoral Districts for Members of Regency/City DPRD. Fifth, the ballots for the presidential and vice-presidential elections are grayed out. The color ballots consist of the ballots of the Candidate Pairs for the presidential and vice presidential elections. green color election ballots to elect Members of the Regency/City Regional People's Representative Council (Regency/City DPRD) in accordance with the number of Electoral Districts for Members of Regency/City DPRD. Fifth, the ballots for the presidential and vice-presidential elections are grayed out. The color ballots consist of the ballots of the Candidate Pairs (Paslon) for the presidential and vice presidential elections.

This simultaneous election also took place in the province of Papua, the eastern tip of Indonesia. This research will be devoted to the city of Jayapura with five districts, namely Abepura district, Heram district, South Jayapura district, North Jayapura district, and Muara Tami district. The following will attach the total participation of the people of the city of Jayapura in the general election.

Table 1

Number of Voter Participation in Abepura District

No	Villages	Number of Voting Place	Number of Voters	Male	Woman
1	Abe Pantai	9	2594	1351	1243
2	Asano	35	7971	4280	3691
3	Awiyo	80	19973	11306	8667
4	Enggros	2	406	204	202
5	Kota Baru	48	11953	6330	5623
6	Koya Koso	13	2945	1635	1310
7	Nafri	7	2018	1091	927
8	Vim	51	12179	6178	6001
9	Wahno	33	6295	3199	3096
10	Way Mhrock	48	12036	6444	5592
11	Yobe	43	10200	5661	4539
	Total	369	88,570	47,679	40,891