17,000 Islands, 193,000,000 Voters, 800,000 Polling Stations, & 25,000 Candidates. Its Election Day In Indonesia.
Its 9.30am on Wednesday 17th April 2019.
Today is voting day across the vast archipelago that makes up the nation of Indonesia. Its eerily quiet with just the occasional motorcycle whizzing by, whereas, normally at this time of the morning the streets would be packed.
It’s a national holiday here, and, over the course of the next six to eight hours one hundred and ninety - three million citizens will dutifully head to their nearest polling station to exercise their democratic right!
This is the biggest, most complex one-day election on the planet and the logistics of running an event of this magnitude are truly staggering:
17,000 islands comprising 193,000,000 eligible voters, who will cast their ballot at more than 800,000 polling stations, some of which are in extremely remote areas of the country. India, of course, is a bigger democracy with some 900,000,000 million voters however their elections are held over a more relaxed period of six weeks.
Of the eligible Indonesians registered to vote, more than half are aged 40 or under in what is the world’s third-largest democracy after India and the US.
Democracy here is relatively young and elections since the ’60s have become a rather colourful and celebratory affair, described locally as “pesta demokrasi”, or “democracy party”.
Today’s vote will be the world’s biggest direct presidential election (unlike in the US where that nation has an indirect electoral college system), and to make things even more interesting or complex, this year the voting process has been made even more gargantuan than normal, with presidential and parliamentary elections being held on the same day for the first time.
At the 809,500 polling stations, Indonesian voters will be choosing from more than 250,000 candidates for 20,538 legislative seats at five levels of government. And all of this will take place over a period of just six hours. While voters will be marking five boxes on their ballot papers, much the national and indeed the world’s attention will focus is on the presidential race.
The incumbent is Joko Widodo, better known as “Jokowi”, a former furniture businessman turned politician from Java, flanked by his vice-presidential running mate Ma’ruf Amin, a 76-year-old conservative Islamic cleric.
Jokowi is up against Prabowo Subianto, a bit of a fired up nationalist who is an ex-special forces who held a high ranking position in the Indonesian military and former son-in-law of Indonesia’s long-time leader Suharto. He has teamed up with Sandiaga Uno, a wealthy former investment banker who was briefly deputy governor of Jakarta.
This year’s vote is basically a rematch between the two political rivals. Five years ago in a bitterly fought divisive presidential election, Jokowi defeated Prabowo by six percentage points.
The run up to these elections has been relatively peaceful and dare I say it, altogether cordial. It is astonishing to witness the passion of Indonesian voters who cram into giant stadiums to hear their preferred candidate speak. The sheer numbers would make some of the largest touring rock groups green with envy.
All Indonesians aged 17 or over who hold an electronic identification card, known as an e-KTP, have the right to vote. Those who are married can vote at a younger age – the legal age for girls to marry is 16. The only groups excluded from voting are police and military officers, who by law are obliged to stay politically neutral.
The electronic identity card requirement means that some in remote or underdeveloped areas will, unfortunately, miss out. In Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, many of the remote tribes will be ineligible to vote as they are not registered.
It is the same in the most easternmost province of Papua, where less than 50% of eligible voters have an electronic identity card. On some of the more remote islands around the country, it is estimated that more than 1.6 million indigenous people may not be able to vote for the same reason.
n a first for ‘democracy,’ in the mountainous regions of Papua, some tribes employ a voting bloc system known as noken, in which a tribal chief represents the communal voice of the tribe.
Given the difficult geographical makeup of the country, getting ballots to remote areas can prove to be a challenge. Teaching Indonesia’s far-flung regions every conceivable mode of transport is employed. Planes, warships, horse and carts, canoes and even in mountainous areas ballot boxes are delivered on foot.
The logistics of planning and implementing this great day are impressive and of course, things inevitably go wrong. A week before election day, a vessel carrying 26 sacks of ballot papers sank en route to Natuna, a relatively small regency of several hundred remote islands in the South China Sea.
Like democratic elections everywhere there is always a concern over alleged irregularities in the electoral roll, with this year the opposition claiming that 17 million voters are registered with the same three birthdays!
In a couple of bizarre incidents, others have been found where voters have been registered as born in the first century AD. The election commission is investigating the claims.
Despite attempts at rampant vote buying, Indonesia’s elections are in general viewed as relatively free and fair, overseen by monitors from 33 countries invited to observe.
Indonesians are incredibly proud of their country and are fierce defenders of their democracy. In many cases today will see thousands of voters remain at their polling stations to watch the count.
All rather refreshing wouldn’t you agree?
