Elections in Indonesia: 2024 Regional Head Elections

Elections for the roles of governor and vice-governor, regent and vice-regent, and mayor and vice-mayor – commonly referred to as the regional head elections – will be held on November 27, 2024. Voting will take place at 435,296 polling stations across 37 provinces, 415 regencies, and 93 cities. Voting will commence at 07:00 and conclude at 13:00 local time, with the support of 3,047,072 polling station workers.

The 2024 regional elections are a significant manifestation of democratic values in Indonesia, enabling citizens to directly elect their local leaders – governors and vice-governors, regents and vice-regents, and mayors and vice-mayors. This process reaffirms the principle of popular sovereignty, empowering communities to shape the future of their regions by selecting leaders with the competence, integrity, and commitment to advance local welfare. Democratic elections also ensure political accountability: Elected leaders are required to be answer to the public for their performance. Moreover, regional elections play a crucial role in strengthening national unity by encouraging citizens to manage political differences constructively, fostering trust in the electoral process, and enhancing democracy and social cohesion across the country.

Indonesia’s Election Law designates the institutions responsible for administering elections. The General Election Commission (KPU), Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), and Honorary Council of Election Management Bodies (DKPP) function as a unified entity for election administration in Indonesia.

The KPU is an independent national, permanent, and autonomous election organizing body that is responsible for managing elections in Indonesia. Its vertical institutional structure allows for the oversight of provincial KPUs and the Independent Election Commission (KIP) in Aceh, and Regency/Municipal KPUs. The KPU is led by a chairperson and consists of seven members. Provincial KPUs and the KIP in Aceh comprise five or seven members, and the regency and municipal KPUs and KIP consist of five members. Members of  these bodies are selected through an open, public process conducted by a selection committee. To support the smooth execution of their duties and authorities, secretariats are established at all KPU and KIP levels. In conducting elections, the KPU forms ad hoc bodies such as the Overseas Election Committee; the Overseas Voting Organizing Group for elections abroad; and district election committees, voting committees, and voting organizing groups.

The Bawaslu is an independent supervisory body responsible for overseeing elections in Indonesia. Like the KPU, it is national, permanent, and autonomous and oversees provincial and regency and municipal Bawaslu. The Bawaslu is led by a chairperson and comprises five members. Each provincial Bawaslu has five or seven members, and each regency or municipal Bawaslu comprises three or five members. As with KPUs and KIPs, Bawaslu members are selected through an open public process conducted by a selection committee. To support its duties and authorities, secretariats are established at each level. During elections, the Bawaslu forms ad hoc supervisory bodies such as the Overseas Election Supervisory Committee for elections abroad (which does not occur for regional elections), as well as district election supervisory committees (Panwaslu Kecamatan), village/subdistrict election supervisory committees (Panwaslu Kelurahan/Desa), and polling station supervisors.

The DKPP examines and adjudicates complaints or reports of alleged ethical violations committed by members of KPUs and Bawaslu at all levels. The DKPP is a permanent body. Unlike the KPU and Bawaslu, it does not have a vertical structure. In carrying out its duties, the DKPP may form regional examination teams in each province on an ad hoc basis. The DKPP consists of seven members: one ex-officio member each from the KPU and Bawaslu and five public figures. Two members from the public are nominated by the president and three by Parliament. A secretariat ensures smooth execution of the DKPP’s duties and authorities.

In most cases, regional elections use the first-past-the-post (winner takes all) system. Therefore, the candidate who receives the most votes in the election will be declared the winner, even if he or she does not receive more than 50 percent of valid votes. However, in the Jakarta gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial elections, and in elections with single pairs of candidates, an absolute majority system is used. In an uncontested election, if the single pair of candidates does not receive a majority of votes, the General Election Commission will organize a re-election for the positions in the next regional elections, scheduled for 2025.

There are no specific quotas or provisions for female candidates or minorities. Access to campaign financing remains one of the greatest obstacles for women and minority candidates. The Election Law attempts to reduce such barriers by allowing certain campaign activities to be funded directly through regional budgets. These activities include debates between candidate pairs, campaign advertising in mass media, the installation of campaign properties such as billboard and posters, and the distribution of campaign materials. Campaign spending limits which, while intended to provide more equal opportunities for female and minority candidates, are still considered relatively high.

In the 2024 regional elections, 1,557 candidate pairs (3,114 individuals) are competing – 1,404 men and 153 women. These figures reflect significant gender disparity. East Java sets a historic milestone in the 2024 regional head election as all gubernatorial candidates—Khofifah Indar Parawansa, Tri Rismaharini, and Luluk Nur Hamidah—are women. 

The term of office for regional leaders in Indonesia is five years. The leaders elected in the 2020 regional elections were initially intended to serve until 2024. However, based on the Constitutional Court’s ruling, the term for those officials was extended until the inauguration of new regional leaders elected in 2024. This decision ensures the continuity of regional leadership while maintaining government stability and preserving the continuity of the democratic process through regular regional elections.

The General Election Commission (KPU) uses several applications to manage elections. These include a national intranet that connects 553 KPU offices (one KPU at the national level, 37 at the provincial level, and 514 at the district/city level). The KPU requires candidates to use the Candidate Registration Information System to register for the 2024 regional elections, providing all necessary information and documents into the system for verification by the KPU. Since the 2014 election cycle, the KPU has maintained the world’s largest computerized voter registration system, SIDALIH – the Voter Data Information System. SIDALIH includes features that help standardize and organize the voter registration process. It generated the voter list for the 2024 regional elections, including mapping transfer voters to polling stations with vacancies in their destination villages. Voters can check their names in the voter list through the SIDALIH portal.

KPU does not use electronic voting and vote counting technology at polling station. Votes are casted by punching paper ballots using nail and then counted and tabulated manually. For the 2024 regional elections, the KPU will use an electronic recapitulation system, SIREKAP – the Electronic Vote Recapitulation System as a tool to document polling station results and assist in recapitulation. This system will publish final results from each stage of tabulation process once its finalized, following the manual tabulation process. Staff at polling stations will take photos of polling station’s result forms using SIREKAP application installed on their mobile phones. The application will automatically convert the images into preliminary figures to be verified by poll worker before transmitting it to tabulation center. The election results from the polling stations in SIREKAP will be published online and could be used as comparison to any parallel tabulation initiatives. Thus, SIREKAP will improve transparency by making results from polling stations publicly accessible, enabling independent verification, and reducing errors. At the same time, the official manual counting will be conducted to obtain the final results.

Vote counting will be conducted at polling stations after voting ends. The results are recorded on a C.Hasil-KWK form, which is copied onto a C.Hasil Salinan-KWK form to be distributed to witnesses and election supervisors. The results are also distributed at each polling station and at the village or ward and subdistrict levels in hard copy and digital formats.

Once counting is complete, each polling station submits its results to the subdistrict Election Committee (PPK) through the village Election Committee. The PPK then recapitulates the vote counting results.

The recapitulation at the subdistrict level is documented in the D.Hasil Kecamatan-KWK form and submitted to the regency or municipal General Election Commission. The General Election Commission Kabupaten/Kota conducts the recapitulation at the regency or municipal level and determines the results of the election for the regent and vice-regent or mayor and vice-mayor.

For gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial elections, recapitulation results at the regency and municipal levels are forwarded to the provincial General Election Commission. 

Voting will start at 7 a.m. and end at 1 p.m. local time. Vote counting at each polling station will begin immediately after voting ends, and votes will be counted and announced at each polling station before sunset. Digital records of the election results in the Election Results Recapitulation Information System (SIREKAP) from various polling stations will be consolidated and used for manual recapitulation process at the upper administrative level. 

Official results for each level—city, regency, and province—will be announced upon the completion of vote counting and recapitulation, scheduled between November 27 and December 16, 2024. These official results will serve as the basis for result disputes brought to the Constitutional Court. Registered survey institutions are typically allowed to release their results no earlier than two hours after voting ends in the western part of Indonesia. In the future, the use of SIREKAP is expected to reduce the time required for vote recapitulation. Since digital data will substitute for physical results, the KPU hopes that, when SIREKAP is used officially in the future, regions will be able to finalize election results within five days after an election. In contrast, the current manual recapitulation process takes seven to 10 days for regency and city elections and 14 days for gubernatorial elections.

• Indonesian electoral information (in Bahasa Indonesia)
• General Election Commission (in Bahasa Indonesia)
• Election Supervisory Body (in Bahasa Indonesia)
• Constitutional Court (in Bahasa Indonesia)
  
   

Since 1998, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) has provided support to Indonesia’s civil society, electoral institutions, and other key election stakeholders. IFES has supported all electoral disciplines, including legal drafting, election system design, results mechanisms, seat allocation, electoral dispute resolution, voter registration, and voter education and public information.

IFES piloted initiatives to counter disinformation during Indonesia’s June 2018 regional elections and currently works with civil society organizations, election management bodies, and interfaith groups to continue this critical work in the lead-up to the regional head elections. For hundreds of local elections conducted since 2015, and for the 2019 election cycle, IFES worked with civil society and academia to support electoral legal reform; improve election operations; include women, youth, and persons with disabilities in the electoral process; and maintain a comprehensive Indonesian election information portal. IFES has also shared international experiences and best practices with Indonesian election management bodies as they face challenges such as cybersecurity attacks, disinformation threats, and COVID-19.

These FAQs reflect decisions made by the General Election Commission as of October 2024, to the best of our knowledge. This document does not represent any International Foundation for Electoral Systems policy or technical recommendations. Contribution limits are cumulative for each donor throughout the campaign period.