This paper will discuss the dynamics of the social status as a matter of negotiation over the long history from the era of the Buton Sultanate to the present. The Katobengke people in the city of Baubau are trying to frame the election moment of 17^th of April 2019 as an opportunity for negotiating social status in the context of the structures that exert pressures on local groups in the contemporary context. The Katobengke occupied the lower tier in the era of the Buton Sultanate, eliciting negative stereotypes in daily life from the higher social strata of the past era; even now they currently occupy the same social position in the contemporary constellation structured by educational, bureaucratic and political, economic, and religious opportunities. This paper will describe and analyse a variety of cultural practices used by the Katobengke as a form of negotiation over their current social position in the Butonese social structure.

Keywords: Elections, Social Structure, and Negotiation