Strategy for Utilizing the Digital Infrastructure of the Talaud Islands Regency General Election Commission to Increase Voter Participation in the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections

Abstract

The 2024 Simultaneous Regional Election (Pilkada) in Talaud Islands Regency, an outermost archipelagic area bordering the Philippines, was held with intensified digitalization of electoral services. However, voter turnout fell from 84.15% in 2018 to 79.16% in 2024, even though the number of registered voters increased from 69,564 to 73,479. This study analyzes the strategy of the Talaud Islands General Elections Commission (KPU) in utilizing digital infrastructure to increase voter participation. A descriptive-qualitative approach was used, framed by Hunger and Wheelen’s (2007) strategic management model combined with e-government theory (Heeks, 2006; Huang et al., 2005) and political participation theory (Milbrath & Goel, 1977). Data were collected through interviews, observation, and document study, and analyzed using Miles and Huberman’s interactive model. Findings show that (1) the archipelagic geography creates infrastructure barriers that make KPU’s digital services meaningless on outer islands; (2) KPU has no independent digitalization roadmap, so its strategy is reactive and tends to be symbolic; (3) implementation, which features a good practice in the Singgawe Tarlih application used by the Voting Committees (PPS) for public outreach, is still hindered by the digital divide and one-way communication on social media; and (4) turnout remained high at 79.16%, above the 70% national target, although 4.99 percentage points lower than in 2018, leaving room to widen inclusive digital outreach. It is concluded that electoral digitalization in outermost archipelagic regions is effective only when it is designed inclusively, grounded in local planning, and combined with face-to-face approaches