General elections will be held in Indonesia on 17 April 2019. For the first time in Indonesian history, the president, the vice president, and members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), will be elected on the same day with over 180 million eligible voters. Sixteen parties will be participating in the elections nationally - with four participating for the first time.
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the world's largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands, and at 1,904,569 square kilometres, the 14th largest by land area and the 7th largest in combined sea and land area. With over 261 million people, it is the world's 4th most populous country as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.
The President of the Republic of Indonesia is the head of state and also head of government of the Republic of Indonesia. The president leads the executive branch of the Indonesian government and is the commander-in-chief of the Indonesian National Armed Forces.
The Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia is the first in the line of succession in the Republic of Indonesia.
Direct election is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the persons, or political party that they desire to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are chosen depends upon the electoral system used. The most commonly used systems are the plurality system and the two-round system for single-winner elections, such as a presidential election, and party-list proportional representation for the election of a legislature.
A majority is the greater part, or more than half, of the total. It is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements.
Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician who is the seventh and current President of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014 as the first Indonesian president to not come from an elite political or military background, he was previously the Mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012, and the Governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014.
The legislative election will see over twenty thousand seats in the MPR and the local councils for provinces and cities/regencies all being contested, with over eight thousand competing for the People's Representative Council seats alone.
The People's Representative Council, alternatively translatable as the House of Representatives or as the House of People's Representatives, is one of two elected national legislative assemblies in Indonesia.
Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo is an Indonesian businessman, politician and former Lieutenant General of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. He is the son of Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, an Indonesian economist, and Dora Sigar. He is the former husband of Titiek Suharto, the late President Suharto's second daughter. They were married in 1983 and divorced in 1998 during the Indonesian political crisis. That same year, he was dishonorably discharged from the military and subsequently banned from entering the United States because of alleged human rights violations.
A minority government, or minority cabinet or minority parliament, is a cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament. It is sworn into office, with or without the formal support of other parties, to enable a government to be formed. Under such a government, legislation can only be passed with the support of enough other members of the legislature to provide a majority, encouraging multi-partisanship. In bicameral parliaments, the term relates to the situation in chamber whose confidence is considered most crucial to the continuance in office of the government.
Between 2014 and 2019, three major waves of local elections were held - in 2015, 2017 and 2018. The 2017 elections included the gubernatorial elections for Jakarta, which saw Jokowi's former deputy Basuki Tjahaja Purnama defeated following a campaigning season described to be filled with identity politics.[4][5] On the other hand, the local elections the following year was described as being more policy-oriented instead.[6]
Despite plans to introduce electronic voting, the People's Representative Council (DPR) in March 2017 announced it would not mandate e-voting in the 2019 elections because of hacking fears and because not all parts of Indonesia have internet access.[7] On 7 April 2017, the General Elections Commission (KPU), the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the Home Affairs Ministry held a meeting with the People's Representative Council's special committee to deliberate a draft law concerning the 2019 elections.[8] After the meeting, Home Affairs Ministry Secretary General Yuswandi A. Temenggung said the campaign period for the elections would be limited to six months, while the voting day could be on 13, 17, or 19 April 2019. The Chairman of the House's special committee deliberating the bill, Lukman Edy, announced on 25 April 2017 that Wednesday, 17 April 2019, had been agreed upon as the date for the elections.[9]
Electronic voting is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting votes.
Nominations of candidates for the national and regional legislatures as well as candidates for president and vice president were completed in September 2018. The campaign period is scheduled to take place from 13 October 2018 to 13 April 2019 followed by a three-day election silence before polling day on 17 April. The final results will be announced between 17 and 23 September. The inauguration of the president and vice president is scheduled for 20 October 2019.[10][11]
The election is regulated by the Law No. 7 of 2017.[12][13] Responsibility for holding the election falls on the General Elections Commission (Indonesian: Komisi Pemilihan Umum, abbv. KPU), a legally independent government body.[14] In addition, the election is monitored by the Elections Supervisory Body[id] (Indonesian: Badan Pengawas Pemilihan Umum, abbv. Bawaslu), which also has the authority to rule on violations of election rules (e.g. administrative errors, vote buying, etc).[15]
Voters vote on paper ballots, using a nail to poke a hole for the party/candidate they wish to elect.[16]
Presidential
In order to run for presidency, a candidate must receive support from political parties totaling 20 percent of the seats in the People's Representative Council or 25 percent of the popular vote in the previous legislative election i.e. 2014.[17][13]:Art. 222 Political parties are allowed to remain neutral given that they are unable to support their own candidate. However, if a neutral party/parties could endorse their own candidate (i.e. 20 percent of seats/25 percent of popular votes), they are required to do so, or they would be barred from participating in the next election.[13]:Art. 235[18]
The voting procedure follows a single non-transferable vote system, with voters simply choosing one of the candidates. A winning candidate is required to win a majority, and is also required to win at least 20 percent of the votes in over half of Indonesia' provinces (i.e. 18 provinces). If no candidate pairs had fulfilled the criterion, the election is to be repeated with a maximum of two participants. The law includes a provision in the case of a draw in popular vote when determining the top two places (e.g. three candidates with equal votes or two candidates in the second place), following which the winner is to be determined based on the vote distribution.[13]:Art. 416
Members of both the People's Representative Council (DPR) and the Regional People's Representative Councils (DPRD) are elected from multi-member electoral districts through voting with an open list system.[13][19] The KPU regulates that the maximum number of candidates from a single party is equal to the number of seats available - with an exception in Aceh, where the local provincial council set the limit at 120 percent the number of seats instead for the regional council elections.[20] In addition, there is a gender quota requiring at least 30 percent of registered candidates to be female.[21]
A 4 percent parliamentary threshold exists for parties to be represented in DPR, though candidates could still win seats in the regional councils provided they win sufficient seats.[19][22] There are 575 DPR seats contested - up from 560 in 2014.[19] The election for Regional Representative Council members requires all candidates to not be a member of a political party, with 4 seats being available per province - a total of 136.[23]
Voters
The voting age for the election is 17, with all married or divorced Indonesian citizens also eligible if they were under the age of 17. The marriage clause in particular received complaints as it may incentivize child marriage.[24] Indonesians who lived abroad could vote in either the embassies and consulates which are to setup polling stations, vote in mobile polling stations, or through postal voting, with the voting taking place on 8-14 April, earlier than the main election event on 17 April.[25]
Prior to the publication of a final voter list (Indonesian: Daftar Pemilih Tetap), KPU had compiled a provisional voter list (Indonesian: Daftar Pemilih Sementara) which was published in June 2018, containing around 186 million names.[26]
KPU in 5 September 2018 announced that there were 187 million registered voters - 185,732,093 in Indonesia and 2,049,791 voting abroad. They were to vote in 805,075 polling stations in Indonesia, with mail-in votes and 620 polling stations outside the country.[27] Later on, 670,000 names were removed following complaints of duplicate names in the voter registry, lowering the total voter count to around 187.1 million.[28] Further investigation resulted in over 1 million duplicate voters discovered in Papua alone in October, out of the initial voter registry of 3 million.[29] Bawaslu commissioners in early September estimated that there would be around 2 million duplicate voters,[30] while opposition party Gerindra stated that they only had 137 million voters in their internal registry, and claimed that they found 25 million duplicate names in the registry.[31]
Contesting parties
In total, 16 parties will participate in the election on a national level, plus four participating only in Aceh.[32]
A total of 27 political parties had registered to the General Elections Commission to run in the election.[33] On 17 February 2018, the General Elections Commission announced that 14 parties had passed the verification precedes,and would be eligible to contest the legislative election. The Crescent Star Party subsequently appealed to the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), which ruled it could participate, making a total of 15 parties.[34][35] The Indonesian Justice and Unity Party's appeal to Bawaslu was rejected, but an 11 April ruling by the National Administrative Court (Pengadilan Tata Usaha Negara) decreed that the party was eligible to contest in the election.[36]
In July 2017, the People's Representative Council (DPR) confirmed that only parties or coalitions with at least 20% of seats in the legislature, or 25% of votes in the previous election, would be eligible to submit a presidential candidate.[39] Requirements for presidential/vice presidential candidates are similar, with only either Indonesia-born lifelong Indonesian citizens or naturalized citizens who were born abroad and obtained a foreign citizenship outside their own will being eligible to run with a minimum age of 40 and a requirement to "have a belief in the One and Only God". If the candidates have spouses, they must also be Indonesian citizens. A criminal record resulting in over 5 years of incarceration or an active bankruptcy also bars a candidate from running. A term limit of two terms is in place, barring incumbent vice president Jusuf Kalla from running as a vice presidential candidate.[40][13]:Art. 169
While a rematch between Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto had been considered for some time, there were initial doubts over the likelihood of Prabowo's second bid for presidency, due to the parliamentary seat requirement of 20 percent which required his party Gerindra to form a coalition; on the other hand, Jokowi received strong support from two largest parties in the parliament - PDI-P and Golkar.[41] There were considerations of a possible single candidate race,[41] Prabowo endorsing another candidate,[42] or even him running as Jokowi's running mate.[43][44] However, despite Jokowi's significant lead in the opinion polls, no other candidate polled close to either him or Prabowo.[45]
Registration for presidential candidates was opened between 4 and 10 August 2018 at the General Elections Commission head office in Jakarta.[46] Neither candidate declared their vice presidential pick until 9 August 2018, when both declared their running mates. Both picks were considered "surprising" - with Jokowi selecting senior cleric and politician Ma'ruf Amin despite early reports that lawyer Mahfud MD would be selected. Prabowo's last-minute selection of businessman and Jakarta vice governor Sandiaga Uno - close to midnight on that day - was also unexpected, Sandiaga not having been mentioned in the early phases of the selection.[47][48]
Businessman and Vice Governor of Jakarta Sandiaga Uno (Gerindra)
Others
Other notable individuals who expressed an intent, received political support, or was widely considered as a prospective candidate to run as president include:
Except for the National Mandate Party, all parties in the government coalition supported a second term for Jokowi.[65] In total, 9 parties running in the legislative election supported Jokowi, with the coalition having formally met by May 2018. Out of the nine parties, two (Indonesian Unity Party and Indonesian Solidarity Party) are parties participating for the first time in elections.[66] Shortly after Ma'ruf was declared as Jokowi's VP candidate, Jokowi's coalition member party PPP leader Muhammad Romahurmuziy stated that the coalition, dubbed Koalisi Indonesia Kerja (lit. "Working Indonesia Coalition"),[67] was final, and was not accepting any more parties.[68] In total, the coalition gained over 62 percent of the votes during the 2014 legislative election and controlled 337 of 560 DPR seats.
Aside from Gerindra, Prabowo's supporting parties did not confirm their support until late - PAN and PKS on 9 August,[69][70] Demokrat and Berkarya on the 10th,[71][72] the registration day, though the coalition had existed prior.[73] PAN withdrew from the government coalition - resulting in the resignation of bureaucratic reform minister and PAN member Asman Abnur.[74] The coalition was named Koalisi Indonesia Adil Makmur (lit. "Prosperous and Just Indonesia Coalition").[75] In total, there are five parties in the coalition - including Berkarya, a new party[76] - which amounted to 36 percent of the 2014 legislative vote, and is represented by 223 of 560 DPR seats.
Two parties - the Crescent Star Party/PBB (participated in the 2014 election, but did not gain a national legislature seat) and the Garuda Party (a new party) - did not endorse either candidates. The latter's secretary Abdullah Mansyuri stated that the party was focusing on the legislative elections, while PBB's chairman Yusril Ihza Mahendra remarked that neither Jokowi nor Prabowo's camp invited PBB.[77][78] Later on, however, Mahendra would join Jokowi's campaign team as its lawyer.[79]
The official campaigning period is planned to last around 6 months, starting with a "peaceful campaign" declaration on 23 September 2018, with it being scheduled to last until 13 April 2019.[82] Prior to the start of the campaign, both parties submitted their campaign teams to the KPU, with Jokowi's team being lead by businessman Erick Thohir while Prabowo's was lead by former Indonesian National Armed ForcespanglimaDjoko Santoso.[83]
On 23 September, both campaign teams submitted an initial budget, with Jokowi's campaign team reporting an initial balance of Rp 11.9 billion and Prabowo's team reporting Rp 2 billion. Indonesia Corruption Watch observers deemed the initial numbers "unrealistic" (Widodo's campaign team spent Rp 293 billion in 2014, Prabowo's spent Rp 166 billion), though representatives from both campaign teams noted that the balance was just an initial balance, and would increase throughout the campaigning period.[86]
Polls
By late 2018, Jokowi was ahead of Prabowo in most surveys.[87][88] The table below gives detailed survey results from a variety of organizations.
NOTE: The accuracy of political surveys in Indonesia vary significantly, with some having little transparency. It should also be noted that some agencies also act as political consultants and surveys are often paid for by candidates.[89] Caution should hence be exercised in using the polling data below.
Vice PresidentJusuf Kalla claimed that the election will be the most complicated in the world, lending to the fact that voters would have to cast five ballots - for the President and Vice President, DPD, DPR, provincial and regency/municipal DPRD members, estimating that there were 400 factors that needed to be considered.[90]
Contested seats
Legislative elections in Indonesia: April 2019[91]
People's Regional Representative Council Level I Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah I (DPRD I)
2,207
95
Regency/Municipal Kabupaten/Kota
People's Regional Representative Council Level II Dewan Perwakilian Rakyat Daerah II (DPRD II)
17,610
715
Total
20,389
829
Candidates
All legislative candidates must be an Indonesian citizen, over 21 years old, have graduated from senior high school (or equivalent), and have never been convicted for a crime resulting with a sentence of 5 years or more. In addition, the candidates must be endorsed by a political party, and are required to resign from their non-legislative government offices - except for the President and Vice President - or their state-owned company positions to run. Legislators running for reelection or for another body through a new political party are also required to resign.[93]
For the People's Representative Council, there are 7,968 candidates - 4,774 males and 3,194 females - contesting the 575 seats for an average of 13.86 candidates per seat available. Just three parties - Nasdem, PAN and PKB - used their entire quota of 575 candidates, with PKPI registering as little as 137 candidates.[94] Formappi, a NGO, found that 529 out of 560 (94 percent) incumbent DPR members were running for reelection.[95]
The election for Regional Representative Council members requires all candidate to not be a member of a political party, with a total of 807 candidates competing for the 136 seats. The incumbent speaker, Oesman Sapta Odang, was removed from the candidacy list due to him not resigning from Hanura. Although all provinces are allocated 4 seats, the number of candidates vary from 10 for West Papua to 49 for West Java.[96] The KPU has not released exact figures for the total number of candidates for local councils, but the number was predicted to be in the "hundreds of thousands".[97][98] As an example figure, 1,586 candidates are approved to run for the 120-seat West Java Provincial Council alone.[99]
Polls
NOTE: The accuracy of political surveys in Indonesia vary significantly, with some having little transparency. It should also be noted that some agencies also act as political consultants and surveys are often paid for by candidates.[89] Caution should hence be exercised in using the polling data below.
Polls for the 2019 Indonesian legislative election
In July 2018, KPU passed a regulation barring ex-corruption convicts, sexual offenders and people convicted of drug offenses from running for office.[100] However, the Elections Supervisory Body and the People's Representative Council objected to the regulation, and accused KPU of violating the 2017 election law.[101] The Supreme Court of Indonesia eventually ruled that the KPU regulation was invalid, allowing the aforementioned convicts to contest in the election.[102] 38 people who had been corruption convicts eventually ran for office across the country - 26 for regency/municipal councils and 12 for provincial councils.[103]
KPU was also criticized for giving legislative candidates an option to not publish their past track records - Formappi found that around a quarter of the candidates chose to not publish their information, with a further 18 percent not having submitted any. Some candidates noted that they wished to publish their information, but could not due to technical reasons with the KPU's website.[95][104]
Budget
A budget of Rp 24.9 trillion (USD 1.7 billion) was allocated for the election - 3 percent higher than the budget used in the 2014 election. The budget included spending on "safeguarding the election from hijacking".[105] KPU estimated a Rp 16.8 trillion funding requirement in December 2017,[106] later revising it to Rp 15 trillion for a one-stage election,[107] and ended up submitting a funding request of Rp 18.1 trillion, on top of the Rp 8.6 trillion requested by Bawaslu, in September 2018.[108]
Notes
↑ Ballot numbers 15-18 are assigned to local parties in the province of Aceh[37]
↑ Due to the formation of North Kalimantan, which was unrepresented between 2014-2019[92]
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