Indonesian legislative election, 2014

Parties contesting the elections

A total of 46 parties registered to take part in the election nationwide, from which only 12 parties (plus 3 Aceh parties) passed the requirements set by the General Elections Commission (KPU). To contest the elections, all parties must have

In addition, at least one third of each party's candidates must be female.

Initially all parties with seats in the People's Representative Council were to be allowed to contest the election without the need for verification, but on 29 August 2012, Indonesia's Constitutional Court overturned this provision, obliging all parties to undergo the process.

The results of this election will be instrumental to the presidential election in July due to the requirement that a presidential ticket must be supported by a party or a coalition of parties winning at least 20% of the seats or 25% of the popular votes in the legislative election.

The 12 national and 3 Aceh parties, together with their ballot numbers are:

1. National Democratic Party (Partai Nasional Demokrat, Nasdem)
2. National Awakening Party (Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa, PKB)
3. Prosperous Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, PKS)
4. Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, PDI–P)
5. Party of the Functional Groups (Partai Golongan Karya, Golkar)
6. Great Indonesia Movement Party (Partai Gerakan Indonesia Raya, Gerindra)
7. Democratic Party (Partai Demokrat, PD)
8. National Mandate Party (Partai Amanat Nasional, PAN)
9. United Development Party (Partai Persatuan Pembangunan, PPP)
10. People's Conscience Party (Partai Hati Nurani Rakyat, Hanura)
11. Aceh Peace Party (Partai Damai Aceh, PDA)
12. Aceh National Party (Partai Nasional Aceh, PNA)
13. Aceh Party (Partai Aceh, PA)
14. Crescent Star Party (Partai Bulan Bintang, PBB)
15. Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (Partai Keadilan dan Persatuan Indonesia, PKPI)

Election schedule

The schedule for the elections, as determined by the Indonesian General Elections Commission is as follows:

Electoral system

On polling day, voters were given four ballot papers, one each for the national People's Representative Council (DPR) and Regional Representative Council (DPD) and one each for their local provincial and regency/municipality Regional Representative Councils (DPRD I and DPRD II). Candidates for the DPR and DPRDI/II stand on a party platform. The ballot papers had a section for each of the parties with the party number and symbol. Under the symbols, that parties candidates were listed. Voters could vote for just the party, or one of the candidates (or both) by punching a hole in the ballot paper with the tool provided. Candidates for the DPD stood on an individual basis, so voters simply needed to punch a hole in the candidate's picture, ballot number or name.

Allocation of seats

For the People's Representative Council (DPR) election each province was divided into between one and eleven electoral districts depending on population. Each of these electoral districts elected between three and ten members by proportional representation with a 3.5% national threshold.

Once the votes were counted, the General Elections Commission eliminated any party that had failed to obtain an 3.5% share of the national vote. It then allocated seats in the People's Representative Council via a two-stage process. First the number of votes to secure one DPR seat in each electoral district was calculated by dividing the number of valid votes by the number of seats to be elected in each district. Each party's vote in each district was divided by this amount to determine the number of seats won outright. Any party with less than this amount won no seats in this first stage. The remaining votes were then used to determine which party won any seats so far unallocated by awarding these seats to the parties with the largest remainders until all seats were allocated.

For the Regional Representative Council (DPD) each province, regardlesa of size and population, returns 4 members. The candidates for DPD stood independently. Voters were given one and only one vote. The system used is Single Non-Transferable Vote.

Only parties with at least 25 percent of the popular vote or that control 20 percent of seats in the DPR were able to nominate candidates for the presidential election. Parties that did not achieve this percentage had to form a coalition with other parties to make up the required percentage share to nominate a candidate.

Opinion polls

Numerous opinion polls have been done by many different pollsters to gauge the voting intention of the electorate. However, many of them are regarded to be unreliable. The quality of polling in Indonesia varies considerably. Further, some of the polling institutions provide little information about their polling methods. The data set out below should therefore be treated with care.

Results

Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle won the election by 18.95% votes, followed by Golkar with 14.75% votes and Great Indonesia Movement Party with 11.81% vote. However, neither of the parties can submit their own presidential candidate for the next 2014 Indonesian presidential election because none of them reached the electoral threshold for the presidential election, 20%.