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ast Java, the country’s second-most populous province, has been showing a notable gender shift in leadership lately, with five current female regional leaders and another five likely to follow, if the quick count results of the June 27 election are confirmed.

Among the five to be confirmed is the topmost job in the province, the governor of East Java, which is likely to be assumed by former social affairs minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa, who led the quick count results of the election.

On June 27, 19 regions elected new leaders. From the 19, five elected women into the topmost job. Along with Khofifah, there are four other female candidates who led in the quick count results: Puput Tantriana Sari as Probolinggo regent, Munjidah Wahab as Jombang regent, Ita Puspita Sari as Mojokerto mayor and Anna Mu’awanah as Bojonegoro regent.

The five of them add to another five female leaders from five regencies and cities who were already in office, including popular Mayor Tri Rismaharini, who leads Surabaya, the second-most populous city after Jakarta.

The province has 29 regencies and nine municipalities with a total population of about 40 million people. The nine regencies and municipalities that elected women comprise about 10.5 million people.

“The presence of those women as the regional leaders will bring a new, fresh atmosphere for Indonesia’s politics,” said Titi Anggraini of election watchdog Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem).

Data from the General Elections Commission (KPU) showed that the number of female candidates running in the 2018 regional contest had increased to 8.85 percent of the total 1,140 candidates, more than in the 2017 and 2015 regional elections, when the proportion was 7.17 percent and 7.47 percent, respectively.

Although the number of female candidates was still below 10 percent, data from Perludem revealed that the electability of female candidates surpassed 30 percent.

Of the 101 female candidates competing in the elections across the country, East Java contributed one governor and eight mayor and regent candidates, higher than West Java which had seven candidates and Central Java which had one candidate only.

Lena Maryana Mukti of Maju Perempuan Indonesia (MPI), a group for women’s participation in politics, related the significant number of female leaders in East Java with the strong grassroots of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s largest Muslim organization.

NU has two women’s wings, Muslimat and Fatayat, which have a significant number of followers and loyalists in the provinces.

Khofifah currently leads the Muslimat NU, while Probolinggo’s Puput is an executive member of Muslimat NU in Probolinggo. Meanwhile, Mundjidah once led Muslimat NU in Jombang and Anna Mu’awanah is an NU-based National Awakening Party (PKB) politician.

Women are considered to be more sensitive than men, which is good for handling bureaucracy and seeing problems in detail. In addition, the existence of women leaders will contribute a lot to concerns over health and economy problems in the region, the activists believed.

Perludem’s Titi said that at least, the number of female leaders in East Java could help dispel the belief that a woman could only lead a region if she was part of a political dynasty.

Of the 10 in East Java, five are known to have family ties with incumbent or former leaders, including Ita of Mojokerto, who is the sister of the current Mojokerto regent, Mustofa Kamal Pasa, who was named a suspect in May by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and Puput of Probolinggo, who is the wife of former regent Hasan Aminuddin.

The other three are Dewanti Rumpoko, the current Batu mayor, who is the wife of Eddy Rumpoko, former Batu mayor. In April this year, Corruption Court judges sentenced Eddy to 3 years in jail.

Kediri Regent Haryanti Sutrisno is the wife of Sutrisno, a former Kediri regent. Sutrisno has three wives and Haryanti competed for the regent seat in 2010 with her husband’s second wife, Nur Laila, and in 2015 competed for the seat with Sutrisno’s third wife, Sayekti. Haryanti won both elections. Probolinggo Mayor Rukmini Buchori is the wife of former mayor M. Buchori, who was sentenced to a year in jail in February last year for corruption.