Elections in Indonesia

Indonesia's first general election elected members of the DPR and the Constitutional Assembly of Indonesia (Konstituante). The election was organised by the government of Prime Minister Ali Sastroamidjojo. Sastroamidjojo himself declined to stand for election, and Burhanuddin Harahap became Prime Minister.

The election occurred in two stages:

• The election of the members of the DPR, which took place on 29 September 1955. Twenty-nine political parties and individuals took part;
• The election for the members of the Constitutional Assembly, which took place on 15 December 1955.

The five largest parties in the election were the National Party of Indonesia (PNI), Council of Indonesian Muslim Associations Party (Masyumi), Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), and Indonesian Islamic Union Party (PSII).

Most elections during the New Order were conducted by General Elections Institution (LPU), as of 1997 election, it was led by Minister of Home Affairs.

The first election after the establishment of Suharto's New Order took place on 5 July 1971. Ten political parties participated.

The five largest political parties were a newly-participate "functional group" Golkar, Nahdlatul Ulama, Muslim Party of Indonesia (Parmusi), PNI and PSII.

A map showing the parties/organisations with the largest vote share per province in Indonesia's elections from 1977 to 2019

President Suharto places his ballot into the ballot box at TPS 002, Gondangdia Village, Menteng, Central Jakarta, 9 June 1992.

Five further legislative elections were held under Suharto administration. In accordance with the legislation, these were contested by two parties: United Development Party (PPP) and Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI); as well as Golkar. All elections in this period were won by Golkar.

On every March after the legislative election, the MPR would hold General Sessions (Sidang Umum MPR) in which included the election of President and soon after, the Vice President; as mandated by the original constitution. On all occasions, Suharto was the only person ever stood as a presidential candidate, thus enabling him to be elected unanimously. On vice-presidential elections, all candidates endorsed by Golkar (and the military faction) went on to be elected unanimously.

To ensure that Golkar always won more than 60% of the popular vote, the New Order regime used a number of tactics. These included:

• Reducing the number of opponents: In 1973, the existing political parties were forced to merge into either PPP or PDI. These were the only parties allowed to contest general elections.[5][6]
• Weakening the remaining opponents: The two political parties were forbidden to criticise government policy,[7] and the government had to approve all slogans they used. Furthermore, they were not allowed to organise at the village level (where the majority of Indonesians live). To stop the rise of charismatic figures, their candidates had to be vetted by the government. When a potentially charismatic figure (in the form of founding president Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri) became a leader of the PDI, the government engineered a political convention in Medan in 1996 to remove her. Ironically, the ensuing disturbances at the PDI's Jakarta headquarters began a chain of events that indirectly led to the downfall of the New Order.[5][6]
• Coercion to vote Golkar: Civil servants and state- and regional-owned enterprises employees were compulsorily members of the Golkar-linked Employees' Corps of the Republic of Indonesia (KORPRI) and hence ordered to support Golkar, or face accusations of insubordination and even forced relocation to a remote region. Private sector workers were reminded of the need for "stability". Many people believed the vote was not secret, and the government did little to persuade them otherwise. Many voters were still at school, and they were warned by teachers of a link between their choice at the ballot box and exam success [6]
• The vote-counting process: The Golkar votes were counted first, then those of the two other parties. In the 1997 election, by 9 p.m. on the day after voting, Golkar had already been awarded 94% of its eventual vote. By contrast, the PPP had been credited with less than 10% of its final tally.[8]
• Vote-rigging: Although the counting at the local ballot boxes was conducted in public, with the ballot papers held up and the scores marked on boards, it was at the later stages where irregularities were frequently reported.[6]
• Multiple voting: There was no effective way of determining who had already voted, allowing many to do so more than once [6]

The 1999 election was the first election held after the collapse of the New Order. It was held on 7 June 1999 under the government of B.J. Habibie. Forty-eight political parties participated.

The six largest parties which passed the electoral threshold of 2% were the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), the reformed Golkar Party, PPP, National Awakening Party (PKB), National Mandate Party (PAN), and Crescent Star Party (PBB).

Under the constitution, the new president was elected by members of the all-house MPR in a joint sitting. This meant that although PDI-P won the largest share of the popular vote, the new President was not its nominee, Megawati Sukarnoputri, but Abdurrahman Wahid of PKB. Megawati then became vice president.

During its 2002 annual session, the MPR added 14 amendments to the 1945 Constitution. Included in these amendments were measures to reorganise the Indonesian legislature. Beginning in 2004, the MPR would be composed of the existing DPR and a new Regional Representative Council (DPD). Because all the seats in the MPR would be directly elected, this called for the removal of the military from the legislature, whose 38 seats for the 1999–2004 period were all appointed.[10] This change and an amendment for direct election of the President and Vice-President were significant steps for Indonesia on the road towards full democracy.[11]

The 2004 legislative election was held on 5 April 2004. A total of 24 parties contested the election. Golkar Party won the largest share of the vote, at 21.6%, followed by PDI-P, PKB, PPP and newly formed Democratic Party. 17 parties won legislative seats.

In 2005, Indonesia also began holding direct elections for governors, mayors and regents. Prior to this, local executives had been elected by a vote of the local legislative body. The first region to do so was Kutai Kartanegara, which held a regency election on 1 June 2005.[12]

Legislative elections for the DPD and the DPR were held in Indonesia on 9 April 2009. The presidential election was held on 8 July, with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono winning enough of the vote to make the run-off election unnecessary.[13]

Legislative elections for the DPD and the DPR were held in Indonesia on 9 April 2014.[14] The presidential election was held on 9 July 2014, with Joko Widodo, then the Governor of Jakarta winning the election against Prabowo Subianto, a former general in Indonesia.[15]

In 2019, for the first time, legislative and presidential elections were held on the same day. Joko Widodo, running with Ma’ruf Amin as his vice-presidential candidate, again defeated Prabowo Subianto, running with Sandiaga Uno, winning 55.4% of the vote.[16][17] In the legislative vote, PDI-P came first, with 19.3% of the vote, followed by Prabowo's Gerindra Party with 12.6% .[18]