General Election

The Indonesian nation has been so far organizing general elections for nine times, namely in 1955, 1971, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 1999 and the recent 2004. The first, widely acclaimed as a fairly democratic general elections, was held in 1955 under the Administration of Soekarno, the first president of the Republic. During this general elections many parties, with ideologies ranging from religious, Marxism and nationalistic, contested to elect members of the House of Representatives and the Constituent Assembly with the task to draw up the nation's new constitution to replace the existing 1945 Constitution adopted on August 18, 1945, the day after the nation proclaimed its independence. However, after deliberating for three years, they failed in scoring a majority. As a result, then President Soekarno was forced to dissolve the Assembly, and to issue a Presidential Decree calling for the reinstitution of the 1945 Constitution. The Presidential Decree, issued on July 5, 1959 revoked at the same time a Government Manifesto calling for the formation of as many political parties as possible.

The second was in 1971, held under the Administration of President Soeharto, in which there were still many parties contesting. Then in 1975, Act No.3 of 1975 was issued with regard to the fusion of about 150 political and mass organizations into two political parties i.e. Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (the United Development Party) and Partai Demokrasi Indonesia (the Indonesian Democratic Party), and one Functional Group (Golongan Karya). After that there had been only the two parties and the functional group contesting the next five general elections, in which the Functional Group always came up first with a landslide victory. Only during the 1999 General Elections under the relatively short-term Administration of President B.J. Habibie, many parties (48 parties) could contest again. This time Partai Demokrasi Indonesia-Perjuangan, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) won the contest by getting the most votes, relegating the Golkar Party to second place.

The 2004 General Elections

Article 1 clause (2) of the amended 1945 Constitution stipulates that "sovereignty is vested with the people and shall be exercised according to the Constitution." It explicitly means that sovereignty shall no more be exercised by the People's Consultative Assembly as it did previously, but shall be done according to the provisions of the Constitution. Under this stipulation all members of the House of Representatives and the Regional Representatives Council _the members of the two legislative bodies then constitute members of the Assembly_ and members of provincial and district as well as municipal Houses of Representatives should be elected, and for the first time in the history of this Republic, the President and Vice-President are to be elected direct by popular votes.

Translating the stipulation are Law No. 23 of 2003 concerning General Elections to elect the President and Vice-President, Law No. 31 of 2002 on Political Parties, Law No. 12 of 2003 on General Elections to elect Members of the House, Regional Representatives Council and Regional Houses of Representatives, and Law No. 22 of 2003 concerning the Composition and Status of the Assembly, the House, and the Regional Houses.

Law No. 12 of 2003 stipulates that the number of seats of the House is 550; that of Provincial Houses shall not be less than 35 and no more than 100 seats, and those of district/municipal Houses shall not be less than 20 and no more than 45 seats.

Contesting in the 2004 general elections to elect members of House, and regional Houses were 24 political parties to fight for seats mentioned earlier. Five major parties topping the outcome of the 2004 general elections are: the Golkar Party that garnered 24,480,757 votes to win 127 seats of the House, followed by the Indonesian Democratic

Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 21,026,629 votes to get 109 seats, the Nation's Awakening Party (PKB) with 11,989,564 votes to gain 52 seats, the United Development Party (PPP) with 9,248,764 votes to have 58 seats and the Democratic Party with 8,455,225 votes to seize 57 seats. There were 148 million eligible registered voters, but only 124 million or some 83 percent cast their ballots.

Pursuant to Article 6A of the Constitution, the election of the President and Vice President is in pair by direct popular votes, and the candidates in pair shall be proposed by a political party or a coalition of parties participating in the general elections. During the 2004 general elections to elect the President and Vice President, there were five candidate pairs competing, namely: (1) H. Wiranto-Ir. H. Salahuddin Wahid, proposed by the Golkar Party; (2) incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri-K.H. Hasyim Muzadi, proposed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle; (3) Prof. DR. Amien Rais-Ir. Siswono Yudo Husodo, proposed by the National Mandate Party (PAN); (4) Susilo Bambang Yudoyono-Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, proposed by the Democratic Party; (5) and incumbent Vice Prersident Hamzah Haz-Agum Gumelar, proposed by the United Development Party (PPP). With no single pair winning a majority votes in the first-round presidential election on July 5, the two top pairs, Susilo Bambang Yudoyono-Jusuf Kalla and Megawati Soekarnoputri-Hasyim Muzadi were eligible to contest to the election run-off that was held successfully on September 20, 2004 in fair, peaceful and democratic manner.

The General Elections Commission (KPU), an independent institution that organized the legislative and presidential-vice-presidential elections, announced officially on October 4, 2004 that retired Army general Susilo Bambang Yudoyono and his running mate Mohammad Yusuf Kalla as the winner of the election runoff. The Susilo Bambang Yudoyono-Jusuf Kalla pair garnered 69,266,350 votes or 60.68 percent of total valid votes, against 44,990,704 votes or 39.38 percent seized by incumbent Megawati Soekarnoputri and Hasyim Muzadi. There were 155 million registered voters but only 114,257,054 votes or less than 80 percent declared valid.