ELECTIONS IN INDONESIA
National legislative and presidential elections in Indonesia are held every five years. The last ones were was in 2024. The next one is in 2029. The voting age is 17. However, married persons regardless of age can vote. Around 205 million of Indonesia’s 290 million people are eligible voters. Voting is weighed in favor of the less populous peripheral islands. More than half of eligible voters — around 106 million people — are under 40 years old, according to general election commission data.
In 2024, Indonesia held general elections on February 14 to choose the president and vice president as well as members of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) — the country’s legislature. In 2004, 2009 and 2014, elections for legislatures at national and sub-national level were held in April while and presidential elections were held in July. While Presidential and legislative elections happen every five years, local elections for powerful executives on sub-national level happens in a staggered manner throughout Indonesia all the time. There is always an imminent local election somewhere in Indonesia.
Indonesia is the world's third-largest democracy, after India and the U.S., and Southeast Asia's biggest economy. Elections are usually held on Monday. The polling stations open around 7:00an and close at 10:00pm. Elections are set and overseen by an the National Election Commission known by the Indonesian acronym KPU. Voters stick a pin through a piece of paper with the symbol of each party on it and have their fingers marked with indelible ink to prevent them from voting more than once. Sometimes it can take weeks to get the ink off. The official tallies for elections are not announced until two weeks after the election is held. Preliminary results are announced after counting a half million or so votes at 2,500 selected polling stations.
Evolution of Indonesian Elections
.The quality of the 1999 and 2004 election operation progressed well. The elections those years were lively and largely peaceful but a major procurement scandal, subsequent dysfunctional legislation, and a challenged election commission resulted in sub-standard 2009 elections — saved primarily by a convincing and significant victory margin. [Source: rumahpemilu.org, Indonesia’s Election Portal]
Transparency at the level of the individual polling station was high, and democratic norms have been slowly inculcated into the population through public education efforts. A vigorous civil society has emerged during the transition from authoritarian rule. While students played a key role in bringing down Suharto, more significant to the day-to-day operation of Indonesia's democracy are reformist civil society groups that have established a strong voice in contemporary political dialogue. Groups that agitate against corruption and human rights violations, as well as those that advocate for women, the urban poor, and electoral reform, contribute to a lively debate and act as a check on the newly empowered political parties. [Source: Paige Johnson Tan, Governments of the World: A Global Guide to Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities, Thomson Gale, 2006]
One reason electoral laws have changed so much since 1999 is a nationwide commitment to free and fair elections. If anything, Indonesia has moved to expand rather than restrict voter participation. Importantly, at the national level, violence has not been a problem in any of Indonesia’s three post-1998 elections (there have been incidents at the local level). After the 2009 legislative elections, two of Indonesia’s largest parties called for the presidential election to be rerun. When that call was rejected by the Election Commission, the two parties accepted the decision without resorting to violence or a boycott. Usually, political parties unhappy with election results file complaints with relevant government bodies and peacefully accept the results of the adjudication.[Source: Vikram Nehru, Nadia Bulkin, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 24, 2013]
Size and Complexity of Indonesian Election
Elections is Indonesia have been described as the biggest and most complex in the world — a claim India might take issue with. The big difference between the two country's is that Indonesia's elections take place in one day while elections in India unfold over several weeks. In terms of the size of the electorate, the national election in Indonesia is the second largest one-day election in the world — just behind the U.S.
In the 2024 elections there were 820,000 polling stations and almost 10,000 candidates and that number doesn’t include local elections. In parliamentary elections, 580 seats in the House of Representatives (DPR) were up for grabs, with more than 9,900 candidates. Around 670 candidates ran for the 152 seats in the Regional Representative Council (DPD), designed to represent the regions, In the local parliaments in each of the 38 provinces and 416 districts, there were are over 2,700 separate electoral contests being held for around 20,500 seats. All are the responsibility of Indonesia’s independent election commission (the Komisi Pemilihan Umum, or simply KPU) to administer impartially and efficiently. [Source:Stephen Sherlock, Australian National University, February 13, 2024]
Stephen Sherlock wrote in The Conversation: It is a massive undertaking to organise an election of this size, from procuring polling station equipment to managing a huge election staff to ensuring the public trusts the integrity and fairness of the vote. The election commission does a remarkable job making sure the vote happens on time and the ballot counting occurs quickly and without tampering. To get an idea of the size of the task facing the KPU, let’s look at the presidential election first. There are 204 million registered voters in Indonesia, so the KPU has to print and distribute this many ballots across the country for the presidential vote alone, with a few million extra in case polling stations run short.
The commission is then required to deliver, count and return the ballots to over 820,000 domestic polling stations, in addition to more than 3,000 stations overseas. Since there may be a second-round, runoff election, the KPU must be ready to repeat the whole exercise in a few months. This time it would need a different set of ballot papers showing the two final candidates. But things get really complicated when it comes to the contests for Indonesia’s various national and regional parliaments, even though these get relatively little attention compared to the presidential poll.
In 2014 there were 480,000 polling stations, 190 million eligible voters. A total of 2,659 commissioners at national and sub-national level were appointed. The fixed voter list for the 2014 election established in November 2013 recorded 186.61 million registered voters. For the 2009 legislative elections, there were 171 million registered voters and 122 million votes cast — a 71 percent turn-out rate — which is a drastic decline from the 93 percent turn-out for legislative elections in 1999 and 84 percent in 2004; however, a decline is not unusual for newly established democracies.
In Indonesia’s 2009 election, 4 million station officials at 550,000 polling stations across a country of 17,000 islands managed 775 million ballot papers in 2,450 different designs to get 19,700 candidates elected for one presidency and 532 legislatures at national and sub-national level. In the general election in April 2004, 87 percent of Indonesia’s 147 million voters voted at 600,000 polling stations. In 1999, the voting was carried out at 250,000 polling station manned by 500,000 election monitors.
In Remote Part of Indonesia Ballots Travel by Helicopter, Horseback and by Boat
The Indonesian archipelago contains some 6,000 inhabited islands and extends over 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) from east to west. Some villages are quite remote. AFP reported: “Carrying ballot boxes on their backs, Indonesian tribesmen climbed barefoot up a mountain in a remote part of Borneo island to ensure a small village would not miss the chance to take part in 2014's the presidential poll. Months of painstaking preparation culminate in a weeks-long operation, with ballots taken in speedboats out to remote islands, carried on horseback along mountain paths, and in helicopters and small planes to far-flung hamlets. [Source: AFP, July 8, 2014]
“"Geography is always a problem in Indonesia," election commission spokesman Arief Priyo Susanto told AFP, ahead of this week's poll in which Jakarta governor Joko Widodo and ex-general Prabowo Subianto are in a tight race. “"We distribute logistics to the most remote and least accessible areas first."
“The 15 men delivering voting slips on Borneo were from the Dayak tribe, feared in the past for ritually decapitating their enemies then preserving their heads, and they faced a two-day trek over mountains and through the jungle to reach Juhu village. They ran a gauntlet of wild boars stampeding through the jungle and streams filled with blood-sucking leeches, in areas where there is no phone signal and temperatures plunge at night, local election commission chief Subhani told AFP. "It's better to walk non-stop for 18 hours than to sleep overnight," added the official, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
“In the Bondowoso district of eastern Java, ballot boxes were being strapped to 20 horses tasked with carting voting slips up precipitous rocky slopes, along deep ravines and narrow dirt paths to highland settlements that vehicles cannot reach. "It's too dangerous for cars and motorcycles as a wrong move could mean falling to one's death," district election official Juli Suryo told AFP.
“In vast Papua, ballots are taken to polling stations by jeep, speedboat and on foot. This year the military is using three helicopters to help with distribution in a bid to speed up the process. However thick fog in the mountains or heavy rain can hamper delivery of ballot boxes by air. Extra precautions must also be taken if it is raining, with ballot boxes wrapped in plastic sheets and wax paper to protect them. “"It's a challenging task but we are trying our best to ensure everything goes smoothly on the day of election, and everyone eligible gets to vote," said Papua election official Muhammad Ikhsan Payapo.
Problems and Hassles with Indonesian Elections
The elections have not been totally trouble-free. According to AFP in 2014: “There have been numerous problems in the country's two direct presidential elections and four legislative polls since the end of authoritarian rule. These include late arrival of ballot boxes due to bad weather, leaving people to wait several days before they can vote; insufficient voting slips, and ballot papers being sent to the wrong districts. However, despite the difficulties, most issues are minor, and the majority of voters can normally cast their ballots. [Source: AFP, July 8, 2014]
In the 2004 election, millions of ballots were initially declared invalid because voters punched two holes rather than one. The problem was caused because voters failed to completely unfold the rectangular ballot and punched a hole through two pieces of paper. The election commission decided that the ballots would be declared valid as long as the second hole was in a blank area of the ballot.
Voting has been delayed in remote rural areas because of the slowness in getting ballots to remote stations, especially in Irian Jaya, where ballots are sometimes carried by porters on dirt paths. In 2004 so many polling station didn’t have ballots on the eve of the election, a justice minister threatened to arrest election officials and air force helicopters and Navy frigates were called in to deliver ballots to remote islands and mountain villages.
The 2009 elections had their fair share of problems, including allegations of erroneous vote counting, an abandoned attempt to count votes electronically, inexperienced election staff, and improper voter registration. These were errors in implementation that reflect a lack of preparation—not examples of fraud.[Source: Vikram Nehru, Nadia Bulkin, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 24, 2013]
Stephen Sherlock wrote in The Conversation: Domestic and international observers have increasingly noted the reemergence of authoritarian instincts among the country’s leaders and the rise of dynastic politics in which incumbents engineer the elections of family members. And this not only applies to prominent figures from the Suharto days, such as the leading presidential contender Prabowo. Jokowi has also been accused of paving the way for a political dynasty by using his son’s candidacy to ensure he’ll have influence in a Prabowo presidential administration. [Source: Stephen Sherlock, Australian National University, February 13, 2024]
Legal Framework of Indonesian Elections
Indonesia is a representative republic whereby the President is both the head of state and of government. The 1945 Constitution of Indonesia (Undang-Undang Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia Tahun 1945 [UUD 1945]) is the foundation for the country’s system of government and provides for a limited separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers. The fall of in 1998 and the beginning of the Reformasi movement resulted in significant amendments to the Constitution, which impacted all three branches of government, added important human rights provisions and for the first time inserted the concept of ‘election’ into the constitution.[Source: rumahpemilu.org, Indonesia’s Election Portal ***]
Stephen Sherlock wrote in The Conversation: The presidential election involves a simple majority count of three candidates. But the national and regional parliaments are conducted through a proportional representation system, the same used in countries like Germany and New Zealand, and for the Australian Senate. Under this system, parties win seats in proportion to the votes they receive. For example, a party winning 20 percent of the votes will take up around 20 percent of the seats in the chamber.[Source: Stephen Sherlock, Australian National University, February 13, 2024]
Adding to the complexity, voters in Indonesia are not compelled to vote just for a party, but can choose an individual candidate within a party’s list. So, when voters arrive at the polling station, they are presented with a huge ballot paper for the national parliament alone, which lists, on average, 118 candidates. And they must also make choices for three other chambers – in addition to the presidential vote.
Indonesia elections are run by the Indonesian Election Commission (Komisi Pemilihan Umum). The complex legislative framework governing democratic representation involves six laws: 1) Law 15/2011 governing election management bodies; 2) Law 8/2012 governing legislative elections; 3) Law 42/2008 governing presidential elections; 4) Law 32/2004 governing regional administration (which includes local elections); 5) Law 2/2011 governing political parties; 6) Law 27/2009 governing the structure of national and sub-national legislatures. ***
Electoral laws in Indonesia can change with little warning. In 2009, for example, just thirty-six hours before the presidential election, the Constitutional Court ruled that citizens who were not registered to vote could still do so as long as they could produce a national identity card, family card, or passport. [Source: Vikram Nehru, Nadia Bulkin, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 24, 2013]
Indonesian Presidential Elections
The President is the head of the executive branch and can be elected for a maximum of two five-year terms. In the presidential election, Indonesians vote for a ticket that includes a president and vice president. The pair that receives more than 50 percent of the vote nationwide and more than 20 percent of the vote in over half the provinces wins. If no clear winner emerges in the first round, the two front-runners (that is, the two tickets that received the highest percentage of the national vote in the first round) compete in a run-off election, which will be held in September 2014 if it is required. Only parties and coalitions that win either 25 percent of the national vote in the election for seats in the House of Representatives or 20 percent of the seats in that body can nominate a president and a vice president (the proportional system means that the number of votes a party receives does not always correspond exactly to the number of seats it receives). [Source: Vikram Nehru, Nadia Bulkin, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 24, 2013]
In the 2004, Indonesians for the first time chose their president through direct elections. The 1945 constitution was amended in 1999–2002 to make the once powerful, party-centered presidency subject to popular election and limited to two five-year terms. The president and vice president are elected on single ticket, usually representing a coalition of parties. The Cabinet is appointed by the president. [Source: Library of Congress *]
Several candidates are allowed to run. The elections were made possible by parliament legislation passed in July 2003. Before that the president and vice president were chosen by a vote of 50 percent plus one within Parliament several months after the Parliamentary elections. The vice presidency has traditionally been a largely ceremonial position with no real power. In the 2004 election, the president and the vice president were chosen together on a ticket as is the case in the United States. Before that the vice president was chosen by president and approved by the parliament. According to the constitution the vice president becomes president if the president dies in office.
Quick Counts and the Constitutional Court
As of 2014, public opinion surveys were conducted by the well-regarded Saiful Mujani polling company.Tom Pepinsky wrote in the Washington Post: “In addition to conducting pre-election surveys, Mujani’s firm and a number of others conduct “Quick Counts,” and these are the key piece of quantitative evidence about the results.... Unlike exit polls, Quick Counts use the actual results from entire polling stations. They rely on well-understood statistical principles to produce highly accurate estimates of the final vote share by combining a large number of polling stations that represent (in a statistical sense) the Indonesian voting population in its entirety. [Source: Tom Pepinsky, Washington Post, July 18, 2014]
One facet of Indonesia’s vote counting procedures may prove important in raising the costs of vote stealing. The Indonesian electoral commission has committed to placing scanned images of the official reports from every single polling station around the country online. Enterprising Indonesians have created Web sites that allow visitors to process these images into numerical data on vote totals — in effect, crowdsourcing election monitoring. There is even a Tumblr where observers can flag problematic reports.
The Constitutional Court has the sole authority to order recounts or new voting at the provincial level and below, and its decisions are binding. It has also been called on to make decisions on presidential elections. The court has two weeks to issue any decision should there be an appeal. [Source: Joe Cochrane, New York Times, July 22, 2014]
Legislative Elections in Indonesia
Indonesia holds legislative elections at the national, provincial, and local levels. Voters elect representatives to two national bodies: the House of Representatives (DPR), which makes laws, and the Regional Representative Council (DPD), which has a more limited role. Together they form the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR). All representatives serve five-year terms. In the 2014 election each voter received four ballots on the same day: for DPR, DPD, provincial DPRD, and local DPRD. [Source: rumahpemilu.org, Indonesia’s Election Portal; Wikipedia]
Election Structure 1) DPR (national parliament): 560 seats elected from multi-member districts using an open-list proportional representation system. Parties needed at least 3.5 percent of the national vote to win DPR seats. 2) DPD: 132 members, with four elected from each province, all running as independents. 4) Provincial and local councils (DPRD): Thousands of seats were contested across provinces, regencies, and cities, using similar proportional systems but without a national threshold.
Party Requirements: To run, parties had to demonstrate nationwide organization and have at least 1,000 members, as well as meet a 30 percent women candidate quota. All parties were required to undergo verification following a Constitutional Court ruling. Legislative results matter to president elections because only parties or coalitions winning 20 percent of DPR seats or 25 percent of the national vote could nominate a presidential candidate for the July 2014 election.
Seat Allocation: Seats were allocated in two steps: 1) Parties won seats based on how many times their vote totals met a district quota. 2) Remaining seats went to parties with the largest leftover votes. Seats were then filled by the candidates with the highest individual votes, regardless of list order.
Gender Quota: The law required at least 30 percent women candidates, with one woman in every three names on party lists. Unlike earlier elections, parties that failed to meet this rule were disqualified in that district. Although women made up over 37 percent of candidates, the system did not guarantee women would win seats, since winners were determined by individual vote totals.
Local Elections – Pemilukada
Indonesia’s local government structure is divided into 34 Provinces, with 508 regencies/municipalities (Kabupaten in rural areas and kota in cities), with 6,994 districts (kecamatan), and under this 81,253 villages (kelurahan in cities and desa in rural areas). Formal local elections organized by the election commission are called Regional Head Elections (Pemilihan Umum Kepala Daerah dan Wakil Kepala Daerah/Pemilukada). They are staggered elections for executive heads and vice heads of the 33 provinces (excluding Yogyakarta, see later) and 502 regencies/municipalities. These elections happen throughout the year. There is always an imminent local election somewhere in Indonesia. [Source: rumahpemilu.org, Indonesia’s Election Portal ***]
Five provinces have special status that allows various differences to the general electoral law: Aceh for the local use of sharia law and local political parties; Yogyakarta as a sultanate; Papua and West Papua with special autonomy; and Jakarta as a special capital region. In 2012 the government enacted a special autonomy law for Yogyakarta that regulates that the Sultan of Yogyakarta is appointed as the governor of the province. Province elections: The chief executive of a province is a Governor, joined by a Vice Governor. They are elected as a pair for a five-year term with a plurality of at least 30 percent of the vote (50 percent in Jakarta). If such a plurality is not achieved, a second round between the top two candidate pairs will take place. ***
Regency/municipality elections: The chief executives at the regency and municipality level are the Regent (Bupati in rural areas) and Mayor (Walikota in cities), respectively. They are elected as a pair for a five-year term with a plurality of at least 30 percent of the vote. These regency/municipality elections sometime happen on the same day as the province level but are often on different days. Kecamatan appointments: The 508 regencies/municipalities are administratively sub-divided into a total of 6,994 districts (kecamatan). The head of the district (camat) is appointed by the Mayor/Regent at regency/municipality level). ***
Village appointments and elections: An administrative village refers to divisions within the districts, and is the lowest level of government administration in Indonesia. Across the country, there are 8,309 kelurahan (defined as an administrative village under a city) and 72,944desa (defined as an administrative village under a rural regency). The head (lurah) of a Kelurahan is a civil servant appointed by the district head. In contrast, the head (kepala desa) of a desa is a civilian that is directly elected by villagers in more informal and locally organized elections. These elections also take place in a staggered manner throughout the years, but in this case for a six-year term. ***
Voting in Indonesian Legislative Elections
Elections for the House of Representatives (the lower house), the Provincial Legislative Assemblies, and the District Legislative Assemblies all use a relatively complicated open-list proportional representation system similar to those used in Japan, Brazil, and Chile. The systems for electing members of the Regional Representative Council (the upper house) and the president are simpler. [Source: Vikram Nehru, Nadia Bulkin, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 24, 2013]
The House of Representatives is divided into electoral districts (either a province, a district, or a combination of districts), and each electoral district has between three and ten seats. On voting day, voters receive a House of Representatives ballot containing a list of each party’s candidates who are running for a seat in their electoral district. Voters select their preferred candidate from the list. Each vote counts for both the party and the candidate.
The Election Commission then calculates what is known as the “quota” for each electoral district. The quota is defined as the total number of valid votes obtained by political parties that meet the national threshold for parliamentary representation (3.5 percent of the national vote) divided by the total number of seats in that electoral district. A two-round allocation system is then used to determine the winning candidates.
In the first allocation round, parties receive a seat for each quota they meet, and the votes used to reach these quotas are then deducted from the relevant party’s total. Each party that receives seats is required to allocate them to whichever of its candidates received the most votes. Some parties may not meet the quota, and every party will have votes remaining.
In the second allocation round, the parties are first listed in decreasing order of their remaining votes. The unallocated seats are then distributed one by one according to this sequence until all seats are filled. In the unlikely event that two parties have the same number of votes remaining when entering this round, the seat goes to the party with the wider geographic distribution in the electoral district (note that it is impossible for a party to receive more than one additional seat in this second round).
“This open-list system was introduced in 2009 and is designed to do two things: give smaller parties a fair shot at obtaining a parliamentary seat and force candidates from the same party to compete against each other for votes. Before 2009, Indonesia used closed-list proportional representation in which votes were cast only for a preferred party. Seats were then allocated to parties in proportion to the votes cast, and the party (not the voters) would choose which of its members would represent the constituency.
Political Parties and Candidates in Indonesian Elections
Indonesia has a multi-party system. According to the Human Rights Ministry’s records, there are 73 political parties formally registered as institutions. However, Law 8/2012 requires that each political party additionally undergoes a registration and verification process with the national election commission to run in a given election. In 2009, there were 38 national political parties and additional six Aceh political parties that competed in Aceh only. Nine political parties won seats in DPR at the national level. [Source: rumahpemilu.org, Indonesia’s Election Portal ***]
After the 2009 election the nine political parties amended the electoral laws and set a much higher bar for registering, competing and winning in the election. Barriers, which are high by international standard, include that a political party must have chapters in all 33 provinces (permanent office required), in at least 75 percent of the regencies/municipalities in each Province (permanent office required), and in at least 50 percent of the districts within each regency/municipality (permanent office not required). For the 2014 election 46 political parties pursued registration, but only twelve national political parties and three local political parties (allowed to contest in Aceh only, against national parties) succeeded and will now be on the ballots. They are listed below based on their contesting number with parenthetical information about votes gained in 2009 elections, where applicable. ***
1) NasDem — National Democrat Party (new political party); 2) PKB — National Awakening Party (4) 95 percent votes/27 DPR seats in 2009); 3) PKS — Justice and Prosperity Party (7) 89 percent votes/57 DPR seats in 2009); 4) PDI-P — Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (14) 01 percent votes/95 DPR seats in 2009); 5) Golkar — Functional Group Party (14) 45 votes/107 DPR seats in 2009); 6) Gerindra — Great Indonesia Movement Party (4) 46 percent votes/26 DPR seats in 2009); 7) PD — Democratic Party (20) 81 percent votes/150 DPR seats in 2009, party of the current president); 8) PAN — National Mandate Party (6) 03 percent/43 DPR seats in 2009) ; 9) PPP — United Development Party (5) 33 percent votes/33 DPR seats in 2009); 10) Hanura — People’s Conscience Party (3) 77 percent votes/18 DPR seats in 2009); 11) PDA — Aceh Peace Party (new political party, running in Aceh only); 12) PNA — Aceh National Party (new political party, running in Aceh only); 13) PA- Aceh Party (running in Aceh only; 43) 9 percent votes/33 DPR Aceh Province seats in 2009); 14) PBB — The Crescent and Star Party (no DPR seats in 2009); 15) PKPI — Indonesia Justice and United Party (no DPR seats in 2009). ***
Many political parties representing all parts of the Indonesian sociocultural spectrum contest national and local elections. Smaller parties disappear, and larger parties split and recombine, no longer because of government interference, but rather, simply, because of the harsh sinkor-swim logic of the free political marketplace: election results and the internal dynamics of these parties. In other words, although Indonesian democracy is not yet fully consolidated and faces many challenges, it is well on its way to becoming “the only game in town.”
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, AP, AFP, , Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books and other publications.
Last updated December 2025