Jakarta Post-June 29, 2025
In a move hailed as a step toward a more democratic electoral system, the Constitutional Court has ruled that elections for national and local offices must be held separately, scrapping the “five ballot boxes” format long criticized for over-burdening voters, parties and election organizers. During a hearing on Thursday, the court ruled in favor of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), which filed a judicial review petition challenging the 2017 General Elections Law, and declared that the current format of simultaneous polls has undermined the quality of elections and weakened the democratic process. Until the last election in 2024, voters cast five different ballots on the same day to select their presidential-vice presidential pair, as well as members of the House of Representatives, Regional Representative Council (DPD) and Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) at the provincial and municipal or regental level. But the court ordered that starting in 2029, the elections must be held on two separate dates, with local elections for regional heads and DPRD to take place no sooner than two years, but no later than two-and-a-half years, after the presidential and national legislative polls. The decision to split the elections was an attempt to “realize quality elections” while considering “the convenience and simplicity for voters” in exercising their rights to vote as “an embodiment of popular sovereignty”, Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra read in the ruling on Thursday. The court did not set a specific date for when the future elections should be held. Instead, they left it to the House, which is planning to overhaul regulations on elections, to decide the scheduling details. The legislature is also expected to address the transition periods for local officials, whose terms end in 2029. Should the national general elections be held that year, the regional elections will not take place until 2031. Read more at:
