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lank box victories in some regional head elections, which were held simultaneously on Wednesday, are a lesson for Indonesia’s political parties not to underestimate a people united in strength and willing to fight for a common interest, an expert says.

Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) director Titi Anggraini said the victory of the blank box was clear evidence that voters could unite against the oligarchy of political elites.

“This is an evaluation for political parties that they should not neglect people’s aspirations,” Titi told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

She spoke after the defeat of several regional head candidates who competed against blank boxes, including the Makassar mayoral election’s sole candidate pair Munafri Arifuddin and Andi Rachmatika Dewi, according to quick counts by several pollsters.

Makassar Mayor Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto and his supporters warmly welcomed the blank box’s victory.

Ramdhan and Indira Mulyasari Paramestuti were declared the eligible candidate pair for the mayoral election by the Makassar General Elections Commission.

However, the Supreme Court shot down the commission’s decision, which resulted in the contestation between Munafri and Andi Rachmatika and a blank box in Wednesday’s election.

According to the South Sulawesi General Elections Commission (KPU), based on around 40 percent of the votes already counted as of Thursday afternoon, Munafri and Andi Rachmatika only secured 46.67 percent of the votes, while the remaining 53.33 percent was won by the blank box.

On Thursday, KPU South Sulawesi member Uslimin said if the final count showed the blank box winning, the Makassar mayor and deputy mayor election would be repeated in 2020 as mandated by KPU regulations.

Viryan Azis, a commissioner of the General Elections Commission in Jakarta, said that an acting mayor would continue to lead Makassar if the blank box was declared the winner in the official vote count.

“The acting mayor will serve until the next election in 2020,” Viryan said as quoted by tempo.co on Thursday.

According to Law No.10/2016 on regional head elections, an acting regional head will be appointed by the Home Ministry. Regulations related to the victory of a blank box have also been detailed in KPU Regulation No.13/2018.

Titi said the emergence of this phenomenon, in which sole candidates run against blank boxes during this year’s regional head elections, was an anomaly because it happened after political parties worked extra hard to secure votes.

In other countries, the political expert added, the sole candidate phenomenon usually happened in small areas with a small number of voters. “In such places, political parties do not feel the urgency to show their existence,” Titi said.

“In Indonesia, however, the sole candidate phenomenon has happened in big cities with big numbers of voters, in which political parties should optimize their existence. That’s why this is an anomaly,” she added.

In this year’s simultaneous regional elections, 16 candidates contested against blank boxes in both regency and mayoral elections. According to quick counts by several pollsters, blank boxes won at a number of polling stations in the Makassar mayoral election, as well as the Lebak and Tangerang regency elections.

Titi asserted that political parties should have used this year’s regional elections as a warm up ahead of the 2019 presidential and legislative elections.

Unfortunately, instead of showing off their cadres, many political parties chose to give up this momentum by merely supporting incumbents. “These incumbents, if you look closer, are elites of the political parties,” Titi said.

“Sole candidates happen because of political party’s pragmatism, domination, strong opportunistic interest and transactional compromise among parties in coalition,” Titi said.

She added that she appreciated the fact that people voted for a blank box to express their need for an alternative other than the sole candidate.

“The voters have criticized the parties’ political maneuvering. This is a lesson learned. Never negate voters’ aspirations,” Titi said.

“The sole candidate phenomenon shall never, and will never kill, our democracy.”