Constitutional Court Mandates Separate General and Regional Elections Beginning 2029

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Constitutional Court has ruled that the organization of national-level general elections (Pemilu), such as elections for members of the House of Representatives, members of the Regional Representatives Council, and the president/vice president, must be conducted separately from regional or city-level general elections.

As a result, the simultaneous elections, famously known as the "5-box election," will no longer apply to the 2029 General Election.

"The determination of simultaneity is to realize a quality general election and take into account the convenience and simplicity for voters to exercise their right to vote as a form of the implementation of the people's sovereignty," declared Constitutional Court Chairperson Suhartoyo when reading the verdict on Thursday, June 26, 2025.

In its deliberation, the Court stated that holding elections for president/vice president and legislative members close to regional leader elections resulted in insufficient time for the public to adequately assess the government's performance in national elections.

Moreover, within that short timeframe, the judges assessed that the simultaneous conduct of general elections caused issues of regional development to be overshadowed by national issues.

According to the Court, however, local development concerns in each province and district/city must remain a priority and should not be allowed to be eclipsed. "Amid the issues and problems of development offered by the candidates competing for political positions at the national level, local concerns must remain a priority," said Deputy Chair of the Constitutional Court, Saldi Isra.

Furthermore, the Court also considered that the concurrent stages of general elections for members of the House of Representatives, members of the Regional Representatives Council, president/vice president, and members of the Regional Representative Council, all within a timeframe of less than one year, have implications for the stability of political parties. This is especially true regarding parties' ability to prepare cadres who will participate in the election contest.

As a result, Constitutional Judge Arief Hidayat added, political parties are more prone to pragmatism than to upholding their idealism and ideology. Political parties are also considered to have insufficient time to recruit prospective legislative candidates for three levels simultaneously, particularly for those parties that also need to prepare their cadres to contest the presidential and vice-presidential elections.

"This leads to the recruitment for political positions in general elections opening up broader opportunities based on a transactional nature," he explained.

From the voters' perspective, the Court determined that the close timing of national and regional elections has the potential to cause voter fatigue, which could unconsciously affect the quality of their choices.

This judicial decision is part of the formal review of Decision Number 135/PUU-XXII/2024, submitted by the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem). Perludem had filed a formal review of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections and Law Number 10 of 2016 concerning Regional Elections to the Constitutional Court.

In its petition, Perludem requested the Court to rule that Article 167 paragraph (3) of the Election Law, along with the phrase "voting is held simultaneously," is in conflict with the 1945 Constitution and therefore has no legal force.

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