The official campaign period for Indonesia’s 2024 general election kicked off on Nov. 28.

With incumbent president Joko Widodo term limited, Indonesia is assured of a new president. But the question is who?

The candidates

For Indonesia watchers, the unofficial campaigns have been ongoing since at least October 2023, when the final candidate pairings were confirmed.

For some, it has been going on since 2022, with the various candidates and hopefuls trying to get the backing of the various political parties.

But now, it comes down to three pairs who signed up when registration opened on Oct. 19.

• Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar
• Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka
• Ganjar Pranowo and Mahfud MD

The system

The election will be held on Feb. 14, a date that makes more sense if you remember that Valentine’s Day is not really a thing in Indonesia.

While voting is not compulsory, the day of the elections is a public holiday in order to encourage people to vote, in what Indonesia calls a "Festival of Democracy".

The Indonesian presidential election is a direct election, meaning Indonesians vote for the candidate they prefer. This in contrast to places where the head of government is chosen by other elected bodies such as parliament.

In order for a candidate to become president, they have to win:

• A majority of the popular vote, 50 per cent + 1,
• Have at least 20 per cent of the popular vote in half of Indonesia’s 38 regions.

If no candidate achieves this threshold, the election goes to a second round, to be held on June 26.

Both campaign periods end with a multiple day “quiet period”, or cooling off period.

The election is touted as the largest one-day election in the world, with over 205 million Indonesians expected to vote.

The 2019 election saw over six million temporary poll workers go through all manner of difficulties to ensure the vote went smoothly, wading across rivers and riding elephants.

The rounds

The dynamics of the first and second rounds will be very different.

The first round is a three-way tie, the first multiple corner fight since 2004, when five candidates squared off in the first round.

In a hypothetical second round, only the top two candidates will remain, and will be able to focus on each other for the remaining four months of time.

At this point, a second round seems likely, as none of the candidates appears to be polling consistently above 50 per cent.

At present, analysts, such as those writing in The Jakarta Post, say that the pairing of the Defence Minister and Mayor of Solo, Prabowo and Gibran, are aiming to win the election outright in the first round.

Whoever wins, the new president will be inaugurated on Oct. 20, 2024, almost a full year after the process began.

The parliament

But the presidential election is not the only election taking place in Indonesia on Feb. 14.

The country will also be voting for representatives in both houses of parliament, upper and lower, and in some places, for regional council elections.

At stake in the parliamentary elections is control of the main legislative body in Indonesia.

Furthermore, the percentage composition of parliament determines who can nominate presidential candidates, as presidential hopefuls need to be backed by a party or coalition with at least 20 per cent of the seats in parliament.

Lower house elections are held using a proportional representation system, meaning that the popular vote will determine how many seats a party receives.

As the largest nation in Asean, neighbours such as Singapore will keep an eye on both elections.

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Top image via Bridget Welsh/X, Anies Baswedan/Facebook & Ganjar Pranowo/Instagram