National and Local Elections Separated, Revision of Election and Regional Election Laws Key

The implementation of the Constitutional Court's decision to separate national and local elections will depend on the extent to which the government and the DPR prepare revisions to the election and regional election laws.

The Constitutional Court's decision regarding the separation of national and local elections is outlined in decision Number 135/PUU-XXII/2024, which was read by the judges of the Constitutional Court on Thursday (26/6/2025).

This decision states that the upcoming elections will be held in two stages. The first stage is the national election to select members of the DPR, DPD, as well as the president and vice president. Then, after a gap of two to two and a half years, it will be followed by local elections, which will include the agenda of electing members of the DPRD, governors, and regents/mayors.

The content of this Constitutional Court decision grants the request submitted by the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) in case 135/PUU-XXII/2024, which examines Article 1 Paragraph (1), Article 167 Paragraph (3), Article 347 Paragraph (1) of the Election Law, and Article 3 Paragraph (1) of Law Number 8 of 2015 concerning Regional Elections.

Article 1 Paragraph (1) of the Election Law pertains to the definition of elections as a means of the people's sovereignty to elect members of the DPR, DPD, president and vice president, as well as regional legislative councils, which are conducted directly, publicly, freely, secretly, honestly, and fairly.

Meanwhile, Article 167 Paragraph (3) of the Election Law pertains to the provision that voting shall be conducted simultaneously on a holiday or a day that is declared a national holiday.

Furthermore, Article 347 Paragraph (1) of the Election Law pertains to the issue of simultaneous voting in elections. Then, one clause, namely Article 3 Paragraph (1) of the Regional Election Law, concerns the provision that governors, regents, and mayors are elected directly by the people through democratic elections.

With the Constitutional Court's decision to separate the implementation of national and local elections based on the articles tested above, Perludem in its release views this decision as further emphasizing a clear legal standing regarding the establishment of a more effective and sustainable electoral system.

In its decision, the Constitutional Court assessed that the model of simultaneous elections involving national and local elections at the same time, or the five ballot box elections as seen in the 2019 and 2024 elections, creates a significant burden concurrently, particularly for the organizers and voters.

The Constitutional Court observes that this condition could negatively impact the quality of elections, complicate voters' decision-making, and weaken the institutional framework of political parties.

Regarding the burden on the organizers, certainly with the overlapping stages between the legislative elections and the five ballot box version that has been implemented in 2019 and 2024, along with the addition of the simultaneous national regional elections in 2024, the burden on the organizers becomes increasingly heavy.

For voters, the experience of five ballot boxes in the last two elections also demands greater political literacy to recognize and understand the candidates that must be chosen.

KPU data processed by Kompas Research and Development also stated that there was a tendency for invalid votes to remain high, especially in the implementation of legislative elections.

Although it has decreased compared to the last two elections, namely 2019 and 2024, the figure remains relatively high compared to invalid votes in the presidential election.

In the 2019 elections, the number of invalid votes in the legislative elections reached 17.5 million votes, or approximately 11.12 percent of the voters who exercised their voting rights in the elections.

Meanwhile, invalid votes in the 2019 Presidential Election reached 3.7 million votes or 2.38 percent of the total number of voters present at the polling stations.

The same pattern is also recorded in the 2024 elections. The number of invalid votes remains high, amounting to 15.8 million votes or equivalent to 9.47 percent of the total number of voters who cast their ballots. This figure is also higher compared to the number of invalid votes in the 2024 Presidential Election, which reached 4.1 million (2.48 percent).

The large number of invalid votes in the last two elections is in line with the Constitutional Court's considerations in deciding to separate national and local elections.

The results of a national survey conducted by the Political Research Center (P2P) of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) indicate that the implementation of the 2019 elections was considered a burden for voters due to its complexity.

At least 74 percent of respondents to the public survey and 86 percent of respondents to the figure survey stated that the 2019 Election made things difficult for voters.

The survey results also stated that voters were confused by technical matters because there were too many ballots to be marked. The P2P LIPI survey collected 1,500 respondents from 34 provinces with a margin of error of 2.53 percent with a confidence level of 95 percent.

Data collection for this survey was conducted from April 27 to May 5, 2019, for the public survey, and from June 27 to August 8, 2019, for the figure survey.

Similar results were also recorded from the results of the Kompas Research and Development poll at the end of the 2019 Election. The results of the poll stated that many respondents admitted to having difficulty with the large number of ballot papers in the election.

Although most people feel that it is not a problem, having five ballot papers still creates difficulties and complications for voters.

Among those who reported difficulties, more than half came from the group of respondents with low education levels. The main issue they encountered at the polling station during the last election was the difficulty in distinguishing between the ballots for the House of Representatives, Regional Representative Council, Provincial Regional House of Representatives, and Regency/City Regional House of Representatives.

They acknowledged the same issue regarding the confusion in selecting the names of legislative candidates due to the excessive number of ballots.

However, in general, the majority of respondents (90.8 percent) who acknowledged encountering difficulties with the ballot during the 2019 elections concluded that, with five ballots, the time required in the voting booth was too long, averaging 5 minutes.

Ultimately, the ball is now in the court of the lawmakers, namely the government and the DPR, in responding to this Constitutional Court decision. In its ruling, the Constitutional Court also emphasized the importance of a more comprehensive revision of the Election Law and the Regional Election Law.

The Constitutional Court handed over this matter to the legislators to carry out constitutional engineering in order to improve the existing election system, in order to ensure more efficient implementation and in line with the principle of people's sovereignty.

In a webinar related to the Constitutional Court ruling held by Perludem, Friday (6/27/2025), a lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Indonesia, Hurriyah, stated the importance of political will from the government and the DPR to follow up on this Constitutional Court ruling. "Political will from the government and the DPR is important to restore the essence of democratic elections in Indonesia," he said.

In another webinar organized by the Election and Democracy Academy (APD), the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Sam Ratulangi University (Unsrat) Manado, Ferry Daud Liando, interpreted this Constitutional Court decision as a signal that the institution safeguarding the constitution has a stance supporting the direct conduct of regional elections.

According to Ferry, this Constitutional Court decision sends a message rejecting the discourse of regional head elections being chosen by the Regional People's Representative Council as previously proposed by the government.

If the regional legislative council elections are held separately from the regional head elections, the possibility of the regional head being elected by the regional legislative council remains. However, if the regional head elections and the regional legislative council elections are conducted on the same day, it will close the opportunity for the regional head to be elected by the regional legislative council.

Now, the Constitutional Court's decision to separate national and local elections is final and binding. Ultimately, the public is waiting to see how the government and the DPR will follow up on this decision.

Certainly, both lawmakers cannot deny that the revision of the election and regional election laws is the key answer that must be addressed promptly. (LITBANG KOMPAS)