Indonesia

In the 2019 general elections, Indonesian voters elected 118 women to the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR). Although an increase from 2014, when just 97 women were elected, women still only account for 21 per cent of the 575-member parliament. That means women’s political representation in Indonesia remains lower than the 30 per cent candidate quotaimposed by the Law on Elections No. 10, 2008.

Following President Megawati Soekarnoputri's term, Indonesia, the largest nation in Southeast Asia, has yet to witness a woman at its helm.

It has been 20 years since the country had a female leader. This situation will persist through the upcoming Presidential 2024 election, as female candidates have yet to emerge on the political horizon.

Online bullying of women and girls in Indonesia skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this disturbing trend has continued and even intensified ahead of the February 14, 2024 elections.

Women’s political representation in Indonesia may fall for the first time since the 1999 election, even before the voting starts. 

Political parties claim to have met the minimum national quota of 30 percent for female candidates, but a recent report has found that only one party competing in the 2024 legislative election meets the requirement at the district level. For two decades since the enactment of the 2003 Legislative Elections Law, each political party contesting a legislative election has been required to field a cohort of candidates of which at least 30 percent are female.

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) has recommended a series of steps for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its 10 Member States to strengthen the representation and impact of women in policy decision-making.

The Women Parliamentarians of AIPA drafted a Plan of Action on Promoting Women’s Political Participation for further consultation that included:

The 2024 election is expected to be an important milestone for increasing women's representation in parliament, according to Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA), Bintang Puspayoga.

"We all hope that the 2024 election will be an important milestone in the struggle to achieve fairer and more inclusive representation in parliament to create empowered women and protected children," the minister said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The commission will give political parties until May 14 to revise their lists of candidates for the 2024 legislative election to accommodate the rule change.