As the official campaign period for the regional head elections commenced on Wednesday, tensions between competing factions were apparent, with outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at the center of much of the contention.

The Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) has identified five provinces highly vulnerable to electoral fraud, as the election watchdog looks to step up its oversight work to ensure that the November regional polls run well.

Candidates in the Jakarta gubernatorial election will immediately hit the campaign trail tomorrow as the General Elections Commission (KPU) assigned them their unique ballot numbers for the race on Monday.

The race for the biggest single-day local elections officially began across the country this week, with hundreds of candidates hitting the campaign trail on Wednesday, two months before the voting day in November.

General Elections Commission (KPU) offices across the country announced on Sunday the final names on the ballots for the regional head elections, marking the start of the November race.

The former Jakarta governor may be out of the race, the latest LSI survey indicates that he may still wield some influence among his supporters, who are seen to be up for grabs by leading contenders Ridwan and Pramono.

Former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has thrown his support behind gubernatorial candidate Pramono Anung and his running mate Rano Karno, saying he will assist in the pair’s campaign to win the November election.

In the case of sole candidate failing to win more than 50 percent of votes, the election will be repeated in 2025, with stages kick off after the Constitutional Court finishes hearing all disputes on the regional election results.

The apparent attempts by political parties to use the popularity of celebrities to win votes in the upcoming regional head elections is widely seen as evidence of their failure to find competitive and reliable candidates, an issue which will eventually harm democracy and jeopardize the public’s interests, an analyst has claimed.

The rerun elections slated for 2025 will follow the same procedure as the November simultaneous regional elections, which started with candidate registration and followed by a campaign period for candidates.

With former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan out of the running for the city’s gubernatorial election, the remaining hopefuls are courting his supporters, who make up a large share of Jakarta’s voters.

Eight retired military and police generals have joined the campaign team of Central Java gubernatorial candidate Ahmad Luthfi, who was nominated by the Gerindra Party-led Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM).

Celebrities leading a candidate pair's campaign team is a strategy launched by political parties and candidates to garner enough votes to win the upcoming regional elections, slated for Nov. 27.

Three plaintiffs have made a request to the Constitutional Court to amend the Regional Elections Law to allow a kotak kosong (blank box) to be included in every ballot in the upcoming regional elections, as a protest against political parties for only prioritizing popularity when nominating a candidate.

With just over two months until this year's regional head elections, House Commission II has said holding repeat elections next year is one solution if a sole candidate pair does not win in a region with uncontested polls.

Several regions are still projected to feature one candidate pair running in the upcoming simultaneous regional races, even after the General Elections Commission (KPU) reopened the registration period until Wednesday.

Experts are unconvinced that the extended candidate registration deadline in more than a dozen regions facing uncontested regional elections will result in new names signing up to compete against the strongly backed existing candidates.

Nominees for the Jakarta gubernatorial election have started their campaigns early by going around the city and sharing their platforms with the people over the weekend despite not yet being cleared to run by the General Elections Commission (KPU).

The General Elections Commission (KPU) is set to reopen registration for regional head races this week in areas where only one candidate pair has signed up, in an effort to prevent uncontested elections in the upcoming November polls.

The candidacies of Khofifah, Risma and Luluk were hailed as “historic progress” in Indonesia’s patriarchal society and an indication that the nation is now more open to women occupying leadership roles in local government.

Rumors were circulating on Thursday, the last day of candidate registration for the upcoming regional elections, that the PDI-P would nominate Anies for governor of West Java, but the party instead backed an in-house candidate pair.

Gerindra Party politician Ahmad Riza Patria and his running mate Marshel Widianto, a comedian, have withdrawn their candidacies in the South Tangerang, Banten, mayoral race after the party decided to instead back incumbent Benyamin Davnie, who has already received support from some of Gerindra’s partners in the February presidential election.

As potential candidates register their candidacy with the local and regional offices of the General Elections Commission (KPU), concerns linger that dozens, if not hundreds, of regions will see uncontested races in the November regional elections because of the high nomination threshold for candidates and political parties.

Mangkunegara X, the titular king of Surakarta, Central Java, has withdrawn from the city’s mayoral race in an announcement made just a day before the candidate registration deadline.

Two potential candidate pairs registered their candidacy for the Jakarta gubernatorial election with the local branch of the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Wednesday, setting the stage for a three-horse race in November.

The extension would be in line with a KPU regulation enacted on Sunday on rules and processes for regional head candidates. 

The Golkar Party has backed away from the Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) in the Banten gubernatorial election to nominate a separate candidate, following a recent court ruling that has made more parties eligible to nominate candidates either individually or in smaller alliances.