Elections in Indonesia: 2024 General Elections

On February 14, 2024, Indonesia will hold elections for the president, vice president, regional representative councils and national and sub-national legislatures in 38 provinces and 514 regencies and municipalities. The 823,236 polling places will comprise of 820,161 domestic and 3,075 overseas polling stations. Election Day is a national holiday in Indonesia. Polling stations will open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 1:00 p.m. local time.

The 2024 elections will mark Indonesia’s fifth elections since the country’s democratic transition in the late 1990s. The first post-Suharto democratic election in 1999 chose legislators for the national House of Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, DPR) and regional legislatures (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah, DPRD). The 2004, 2009, and 2014 elections again included national and regional legislative races; added candidates for the nascent regional representative councils (Dewan Perwakilan Daerah, DPD); and introduced direct presidential elections. The 2024 elections will be the second simultaneous elections since 2019 and the biggest one-day election in the world. 

On Election Day, voters will elect a president and vice president, and will fill 152 seats from 38 provinces for DPD, 580 seats from 84 electoral districts for DPR, 2,372 seats from 301 electoral districts for DPRD, and 17,510 seats from 2,325 electoral districts for DPRD Kabupaten/Kota (Regency/Municipal House of Representative). There are 668 DPD candidates and 9,917 DPR candidates.

The president and vice president, as a pair, are selected directly, by majority vote. The candidate pair that wins more than half of all valid votes (that is, 50 percent plus one vote) and receives at least 20 percent of all valid votes in more than half of all Indonesia’s provinces (at least 20) is the winner. If no candidate pair meets these requirements, there is a run-off election for the two pairs that received the highest number of votes. The president and vice president hold office for a term of five years and may be re-elected to the same office for one additional term.  

Legislative elections

Legislative elections for national House of Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, DPR) and regional legislatures (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah, DPRD) at the province and regency/municipal level are conducted under a proportional representation system. Citizens vote for a political party, and seats at each level are allocated based on the proportion of total votes received. The seat allocation for DPR members only includes parties that have met the parliamentary threshold of 4 percent of all valid votes. The parliamentary threshold does not apply for regional legislatures.

Regional representative councils (DPD) elections are conducted under a single non-transferable vote (SNTV) system. Each voter receives one DPD ballot listing all candidates running in their province. The voter punches only one hole to mark the candidate of their choice. The four candidates with the highest vote totals in each province are elected.

Elected legislative members serve for a five-year term. Any member who resigns before the middle of their term is replaced by a candidate who participated in the legislative elections, selected through a mid-term replacement election (Pergantian Antar Waktu, PAW).

In general, each candidate must meet the following criteria: 

• Be an Indonesian citizen; 
• Be considered physically and mentally healthy based on a medical examination; 
• Not be currently imprisoned for a crime;  

Age requirements apply for all elected positions contested in the general election:  

• President/vice president: Be at least 40 years old. Candidates younger than 40 years old may contest if they have held or currently hold an elected position through general elections or regional heads elections, including DPR, DPD, DPRD, Governor, or Mayor/Regent. 
• Legislature: Candidates must be at least 21 years old. 

Presidential and vice-presidential candidates must be nominated by a political party or a coalition of political parties with 25 percent of votes or 20 percent of seats from the previous election (in this case, the 2019 election). 

DPR and DPRD candidates must also be nominated by a political party. However, DPD candidates may run as independents. 

Individual contributions for presidential and vice-presidential candidate pairs are limited to a maximum of 2.5 billion Indonesian rupiah (IDR) (about $161,000 USD), and contributions from companies and non-governmental organizations are capped at a maximum of IDR 25 billion (about $1.6 million USD). For legislative candidates, donations are limited to a maximum of IDR 2.5 billion (about $161,000 USD) and a maximum of IDR 25 billion (about $1,611,355 USD) from individuals and private organizations, respectively. Contributions for DPD candidates are limited to IDR 750 million (about $48,000 USD) from individuals or IDR 1.5 billion (about $96,500 USD) from companies and nongovernmental organizations.[1]

[1] KPU Regulation No. 18/2023.

The General Election Commission (KPU) is the independent election management body responsible for the conduct of national and regional elections in Indonesia. The KPU consists of seven commissioners at the national level, including a chief election commissioner. The executive arm of the KPU is its Secretariat, led by the Secretary-General. It is responsible for administration nationally. The KPU has permanent offices in all provinces and regencies.

In addition to the KPU, the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) oversees the implementation of elections. At the national level, Bawaslu consists of five commissioners who are selected for five-year terms in the same manner as KPU commissioners. Its regional counterparts are permanent institutions. Below the regency level, there are ad-hoc elections supervisors which consists of three members at the sub-district level and one field supervisor at the ward and village level.

The Honorary Council of Election Management Bodies (DKPP) is a national-level ethics council that reviews and makes decisions on complaints and/or reports of alleged violations of the code of ethics committed by KPU and Bawaslu members.

According to February 2024 KPU data, there are 1,101,178 voters with disabilities registered to vote. For voters with visual disabilities, a braille template is provided for the DPD, presidential and regional head election ballots. Voters with any kind of disability can be accompanied by an assistant to help cast their vote in person. The assistant can be a poll worker, or a person appointed by the voter, such as a family member or friend. Each assistant must sign a form if they cast a vote on behalf of a voter with a disability or if they are in the voting booth when the voter casts a ballot. The form certifies that the assistant will keep the voter’s choice confidential and vote according to the voter’s preference.

There is a quota of 30 percent female representation for the nomination of candidates for the DPR, DPD, and provincial and regency/municipal DPRDs. The gender quota for nomination has not led to significantly more women being elected as legislators. Minority groups often become resource persons in campaign activities and help raise public awareness of the importance of elections. Young people are also included in electoral process and according to KPU data, there are 106,358,447 youth voters in 2024.

Out-of-country voting is allowed during presidential and legislative elections, although turnout is historically low. For the 2019 election, the KPU introduced measures allowing overseas voters to take part in early voting by mail and drop box. The KPU also installed 783 polling stations for 2 million registered out-of-country voters in 130 countries. During the 2024 election, a total of 1,750,474 out-of-country voters (751,260 men and 999,214 women) are expected to vote in 128 countries. There will be a total of 807 polling stations and 1,582 mobile ballot boxes abroad.

For the 2024 elections, the KPU announced that the out-of-country voting period will take place from February 5 to February 14, 2024, at polling places across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, North and South America, and Oceania.

The KPU will announce the official results on March 20, 2024,[2] unless there is a run-off. In that case, the second round of the presidential election will be held on June 26, and the official presidential election results will be announced by July 20, 2024. Despite the lengthy recapitulation process, in the past the KPU has provided preliminary results within 48 hours of aggregating polling station result data in its system. Registered pollsters normally publish the results of their quick counts by the end of Election Day. By trailing the electronic Vote Recapitulation System (Sistem Informasi Rekapitulasi Suara, SIREKAP) in the upcoming election, the KPU expects to reduce vote tabulation time. Since it will use digital data instead of the hard-copy results, the KPU expects that regions will eventually be able to finalize election results within five days after an election, much more quickly than the current official manual recapitulation process.

[2] Law No 7/2017 mandates that the official announcement is made a maximum 30 days after Election Day.

General Election Commission

Election Supervisory Agency

Constitutional Court

Since 1998, IFES has supported Indonesia’s electoral institutions, civil society, and other stakeholders across the full range of electoral disciplines – including election system design, results mechanisms, electoral dispute resolution, voter registration, and voter education. Beyond traditional electoral disciplines, IFES has also addressed persisting and emerging challenges to democracy, such as threats to cybersecurity, political finance oversight, and disinformation and incitement to inter-group violence. Through its longstanding commitment to Indonesian experts and institutions, IFES builds broad expertise within the electoral community and has facilitated unprecedented levels of collaboration among electoral stakeholders and civil society. IFES continues to support electoral legal reform, improve election operations and cybersecurity, combat disinformation and incitement to violence, and promote the inclusion of women, youth, and persons with disabilities in the electoral process.

These FAQs reflect decisions made by the General Election Commission as of February 6, 2024, to the best of our knowledge. This document does not represent any International Foundation for Electoral Systems policy or technical recommendations.