ELECTION HISTORY IN INDONESIA

Indonesia has now held six sets of relatively free and fair democratic national elections in modern times, in 1999, 2004, 2009. 2014, 2018 and 2024, following decades of stage-managed elections under the New Order. The 1999 elections were the first democratic national elections since 1955. Local direct elections for governor, mayor, and bupati have been held on a rolling basis in all parts of the country since 2005. The political maturity of Indonesian voters, combined with extensive monitoring by civil-society groups, helped make all of these elections largely free of violence and fraud, despite great concerns beforehand to the contrary. [Source: Library of Congress]

Stephen Sherlock wrote in The Conversation: After languishing under a dictatorship and rigged elections for four decades under the rule of Suharto, the country has done remarkably well since embracing democracy in the late 1990s. In fact, Indonesia rarely receives recognition for this transformation. In a world where democracy seems increasingly under pressure, Indonesia has managed five peaceful and democratic transfers of power. In comparison to neighbouring states in Southeast Asia, where one-party dominance is widespread or democratic progress has been crushed under military coups, Indonesia stands out as a bastion of democratic politics. Given the strains placed on the United States’ long-established democracy in recent years, Indonesia’s achievement in making elections work should not go unnoticed.[Source: Stephen Sherlock, Australian National University, February 13, 2024]

The founders of the Republic of Indonesia do not include the word "election" in the original manuscript of the 1945 Constitution. But that does not mean they do not want elections in the state organization. BPKNIP which functioned as a parliament was also set the electoral law as the main agenda. But the atmosphere revolution and frequent turnover of cabinet making new elections happen 10 years after independence. This is the first election that has filled of value: diversity, honesty, simplicity, and peace. The 1955 General Election was the first election as well as the best, which continues to be an example implementation of the next elections. [Source: rumahpemilu.org, Indonesia’s Election Portal ***]

As the antithesis of the Old Order, at first New Order regime initially offers a democratic space. Ahead of the 1971 General Election, they want to change the majoritarian electoral system they want and maintain proportional system that demanded by the political parties, in exchange free seats are given to for military in parliament. A moment later political life muted. New Order reduced only two political parties, the Development Unity Party (PPP) and Indonesia Democratic Party (PDI), plus Golkar and banned the party operation until the village, and forced civil servants to choose Golkar. The next election is only aimed at winning the Golkar, because the apparent legitimacy of the New Order regime was based in this yellow group.

Indonesia’s First Election in 1955

Indonesia’s first elections were held n 1955, six years after independence was official achieved. Sukarno’s party, PNI, won the most votes but did not win a majority. The Communists (the PKI) also did well. Sukarno was unable to form a government and unstable coalitions continued. In 1956, Sukarno criticized parliamentary democracy, saying it was based on “inherent confect.” His attempt to create a unifying government based on nationalism religion and communism—chosen in part because they represented the three main political factions, the military, Islamic parties and the communists—was largely a failure.

It was a considerable achievement, that Indonesia in 1955 held honest, well-organized, and largely peaceful elections for an eligible voting public of nearly 38 million people scattered throughout the archipelago, more than 91 percent of whom cast a ballot. [Source: Library of Congress]

Indonesia’s unitary political system, as defined by a provisional constitution adopted by the legislature on August 14, 1950, was a parliamentary democracy: governments were responsible to a unicameral House of Representatives elected directly by the people. Sukarno became president under the new system. His powers, however, were drastically reduced compared with those prescribed in the 1945 constitution. Elections were postponed for five years. They were postponed primarily because a substantial number of Dutch-appointed legislators from the RUSI system remained in the House of Representatives, a compromise made with the Dutch-created federal states to induce them to join a unitary political system. The legislators knew a general election would most likely turn them out of office and tried to postpone one for as long as possible.

Elections Under Suharto

Elections under Suharto were bogus contests between members of two or three government-sanctioned parties with a preordained winner—Suharto's ruling Golkar Party won every election — six in total between 1971 and 1998. Suharto himself was elected to seven five-year terms. The Suharto government controlled elections by restricting campaign activities, banning parties and disqualifying candidates, vetting candidates for all three parties and even reviewing speeches.

Suharto was elected president in 1968 and reelected in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, and 1998. In the general elections of 1971, 1977, and 1982, Golkar won 62.8, 62.1, and 64.3 percent of the popular vote, respectively. In the 1971 election, Golkar won by an overwhelming margin and the PNI, Sukarno’s party, fared poorly and was effectively eliminated as a political threat. The new legislature contained 276 military officers and 207 Suharto appointees. Afterward the four Muslim parties were forced ti merge into a single part, the Development Union Party (PPP), and the other parties merged into the Indonesian Democratic party (PDI).

Golkar won the next election in 1977, and it took the majority of the seats in the House of Representatives. Its political dominance continued until the regime was toppled the late 1990s. In the 1992 election, Suharto's Golkar party won 68 percent of the vote. The United Development Party won 17 percent and the People's Democratic Party won 15 percent. Suharto was reappointed as head of the Golkar by the People's Consultive Assembly in 1993. In 1998, the Golkar party won 87 percent of the vote.

According to the constitution the vice president takes power if the president dies in office. Six vice presidents served under Suharto and none was allowed to stay on for a second term. After his "re-election" in early 1998, Suharto named his golf buddy as Trade and Interior minister and his daughter as Minister of Social Welfare.

1999 General Election: Enthusiasm in Welcoming Democracy

The fall of New Order made people enthusiastic about entering the world of democracy. The 1999 General Election took place about one year after Suharto’s ouster and was relatively safe and orderly. Fear of violence were largel unfounded. Suharto’s Functional Group Party (Golkar) struggled and the Indonesia Democratic Party in Struggle (PDI-P) won. President Habibie steeped in to declare the elections valid after the National Elections Commission was not willing to certify the election results. [Source: rumahpemilu.org, Indonesia’s Election Portal ***]

To be eligible to participate in 1999, parties had to be national in scope, with party branches established in at least one-third of the provinces and one-half of the administrative districts within those provinces. A reconstituted General Elections Commission (KPU) administered the elections. It consisted of 48 representatives of the parties and five “government” representatives. (To avoid perceptions of continuity with the authoritarian management of elections under the New Order, the Habibie government chose to fill these positions with members of civil society and academia.) Although this structure functioned well to signal a clean break with the past and a level playing field for all parties, it broke down both in the run-up to the elections (when many of the party representatives were off campaigning) and following the elections (when most of the 48 parties won few votes or seats and began making unfounded allegations of fraud and boycotting KPU meetings). [Source: Library of Congress *]

Since 2002 the KPU has consisted of nine nonpartisan commissioners selected by the DPR from a longer list of candidates nominated by the president from civil society and academia. The 1999 elections continued the New Order practice of a closed-list proportional-representation system with the provinces as the electoral districts for the DPR; thus, the districts ranged in size from four seats (in former Timor Timur Province, now independent Timor-Leste) to 82 seats (Jawa Barat). These were simultaneous elections for the national DPR and the provincial and local DPRDs; each voter used a nail to punch a hole in one of the 48 party symbols on each of the three ballots. These legislative elections were followed by the presidential selection process within the MPR in October. Governors, mayors, and bupatis were selected by their respective DPRD. *

Changes for the 2004 and 2009 Election in Indonesia

The 2004 and 2009 elections were more complicated than those in 1999. There were three electoral processes: legislative elections in early April, the first round of the presidential election in early July, and the second round in September (necessary in 2004 but not in 2009). The vote for the legislative entities consisted of four separate and simultaneous elections, not just three as in 1999 and throughout the New Order. In addition to the DPR and the provincial and district DPRDs, voters now also elected representatives to the new upper house of the national legislature, the Regional Representative Council (DPD). [Source: Library of Congress *]

Two reforms addressed the complaint that representatives in the DPR and DPRDs had been too detached from their constituents. First, electoral districts were limited to between three and 10 seats (for 2009; in 2004 the upper limit was 12 seats). In the 19 least populated provinces, this rule meant that the province remained the electoral district. The other 14 provinces were divided along municipality and regency boundaries into between two and 11 electoral districts in order to fall into the mandated seat range. (All of these electoral districts consisted of more than one administrative district; in no case was an electoral district made up of a single administrative district.) The average DPR district across the 77 electoral districts nationwide had approximately seven representatives. Second, voters could choose a candidate from anywhere on the party’s list rather than just voting for a party. This open-list proportional-representation system is designed to make representatives more beholden to voters than to party leaders for their seats, and, in fact, nearly 20 percent of DPR members in 2009 (104 of 560) were chosen by voters from lower positions on the candidate lists. This method does make election logistics incredibly compli cated; ballots look like newspapers, and each electoral district has to have a separate ballot listing its candidates. *

A further complication for voters was that the election system for the DPD was entirely different from that for the DPR and DPRDs. DPD candidates, who represented entire provinces, campaigned more as individuals, even if they were affiliated with a political party. (DPD candidates had to have been residing in the province they represented and obtain thousands of signatures of registered voters in order to be nominated. For the 2004 elections, candidates were not allowed to have a political-party affiliation, but for the 2009 elections, candidates could be—but did not have to be—partisan.) Candidates’ names and photographs appeared on the ballot. Each voter marked one candidate, and the four candidates with the most votes were elected. *

The DPR elections served as a sort of primary for the presidential election. Parties or coalitions thereof with at least 20 percent of DPR seats, or 25 percent of the national DPR vote, were eligible to nominate presidential and vice-presidential tickets (this threshold was only 3 percent of DPR seats in 2004). *

Results of the 2004 and 2009 Election in Indonesia

In 2004 five tickets were nominated: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Muhammad Yusuf Kalla (winning33.6 percent of the vote in the first round) by the PD, Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), and Star and Moon Party (PBB); Megawati Sukarnoputri and Hasyim Muzadi (26.2 percent) by the PDI–P; Wiranto and Salahuddin Wahid (22.2 percent) by Golkar; Amien Rais and Siswono Yudohusodo (14.9 percent) by the PAN, PKS, and several smaller parties; and Hamzah Haz and Agum Gumelar (3.1 percent) by the PPP. The PKB did not nominate a ticket because its presidential candidate, former President Wahid, was declared physically unfit for the position (a new criterion instituted in reaction to his administration). Because no ticket won more than 50 percent in the first round, a second round occurred in which Yudhoyono and Kalla soundly defeated Megawati and Hasyim, 60.9 percent to 39.1 percent, respectively.

Third Amendment of the 1945 Constitution by the MPR 2002 requires the direct election of president and vice president, and the selection of members of Parliament from each province. Presidential election in Indonesia makes the election more bigger in volume, while the election for members of the People’s Representative Council (DPD) in every province in conjunction with the election of members of the House of Representative (DPR), the Provincial House of Representative (DPRD Provinsi) and Municipality House of Representative (DPRD Kabupaten/Kota), making the 2004 General Election to be extremely complex. The 2004 General Election come off successfully, but ended tragically: several members of the National Elections Commission sent to jail for corruption.

Three tickets were nominated in 2009: Yudhoyono and Budiono by the PD, PKS, PAN, PPP, and PKB (winning 60.8 percent of the vote in the first round); Megawati and Prabowo Subianto by the PDI–P and Gerindra (26.8 percent); and Kalla and Wiranto by Golkar and Hanura (12.4 percent). Because Yudhoyono and Budiono won more than 50 percent in the first round, a second round was not necessary. *

Election in 2014

Indonesia held presidential elections in July 2014, pitting former general Prabowo Subianto against Joko Widodo, the popular governor of Jakarta. Incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was constitutionally barred from seeking a third term. On 22 July, the General Elections Commission (KPU) declared Widodo the winner, and he and his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, were sworn in for a five-year term on 20 October 2014. [Source: Wikipedia, Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., Columbia University Press]

Under Indonesia’s 2008 election law, only political parties or coalitions holding at least 20 percent of seats in the House of Representatives (DPR), or having won 25 percent of the popular vote in the parliamentary elections, were eligible to nominate presidential candidates. Although the rule was challenged in the Constitutional Court, it was upheld in January 2014. Because no single party met the threshold in the April 2014 legislative elections, competing coalitions were formed ahead of the presidential contest.

In the parliamentary elections, Megawati Sukarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) finished first with 109 seats, followed by Golkar with 91 and Prabowo’s Gerindra party with 73, among ten parties that entered parliament. In the subsequent presidential election, Prabowo was backed by a coalition that collectively controlled more than 60 percent of DPR seats, including Golkar. Joko Widodo, however, ran as an anti-corruption reformer and defeated Prabowo with 53 percent of the vote, despite leading a smaller parliamentary coalition.

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