General elections will be held in Indonesia on 17 April 2019. For the first time, the president, and members of People’s Consultative Assembly, will be elected on the same day.

Background

Despite plans to introduce electronic voting, the House of Representatives in March 2017 announced it would not mandate e-voting in the 2019 elections because of hacking fears and because not all parts of Indonesia have internet access.

On 7 April 2017, the General Elections Commission (KPU), the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the Home Affairs Ministry held a meeting with the House of Representatives’ special committee deliberating a draft law concerning the 2019 elections. After the meeting, Home Affairs Ministry Secretary General Yuswandi A. Temenggung said the campaign period for the elections would be limited to six months, while the voting day could be on 13, 17, or 19 April 2019. The chairman of the House special committee deliberating the bill, Lukman Edy, on 25 April 2017 announced that Wednesday, 17 April 2019, had been implicitly agreed upon as the date for the elections. 

Nominations of candidates for the national and regional legislatures as well as candidates for president and vice president will be complete by September 2018. The campaign period is scheduled to take place from 13 October 2018 to 13 April 2019 followed by a three-day election silence before polling day on 17 April. The final results will be announced between 17 and 23 September. Swearing-in of the president and vice president is scheduled for 20 October.

Presidential candidates

In July 2017 the People’s Representative Council confirmed that only parties or coalitions with at least 20% of seats in the legislature, or 25% of votes in the previous election, would be eligible to field a presidential candidate. The deadline for registering presidential candidates was 10 August 2018.

Nominated:

• Joko Widodo, incumbent President of Indonesia
• Prabowo Subianto, former Commander of the Army Strategic Reserve Command and 2014 presidential nominee

Sources and further reading:

https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2018/10/30/055923012/KPU-Reveals-Main-Issues-for-2019-Election-Debates