WNAM MONITORING: Home Minister Tito Karnavian affirmed that the upcoming regional elections to be conducted simultaneously nationwide later this year are a historical feat in Indonesia’s history of elections.
“I highlight that the regional election will be the first in our nation’s history where it will take place simultaneously throughout all regions in Indonesia,” Karnavian stated during the 2024 Regional Election Coordination Meeting for Sumatra, as observed here on Tuesday.
Karnavian remarked that simultaneous local elections will signify harmony between the national and regional governments in provinces, cities, and districts.
“Moreover, there were no regional elections during the New Order regime. Regional elections existed in the Reform period (after 1998),” he noted.
The minister explained that ever since Indonesia’s regional leaders were elected directly, the term of each regional leader has varied, thereby leading the electoral authority to prepare for regional elections every year.
Hence, the government seeks to synchronize the regional leaders’ leadership term to allow simultaneous elections through Law No. 10 of 2016 regulating regional leaders’ elections and Law No. 7 of 2017 on Elections.
The General Elections Commission (KPU), the House of Representatives (DPR), and other national stakeholders had also concurred on holding simultaneous regional executive-post elections on November 27, 2024.
The minister admitted that the 2024 Regional Elections could pose new challenges to electoral organizers despite having held simultaneous regional polls for the first time in 2015 and, barring 2016, every year until 2020.
Moreover, the upcoming local elections will be the first time to cover all regional leaders in provinces, cities, and districts, unlike the earlier regional elections since 2015 that, although simultaneous, covered only several provinces.
“We managed 270 million voters in our last regional elections in 2020. Although we are experienced in organizing such election, we should not underestimate (the upcoming regional election) at all,” he remarked.
