Indonesia’s Election Rules Tighten on Women’s Representation

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Indonesia is stepping up efforts to promote gender equality by enforcing a 30 percent quota for women on legislative candidate lists.

Political parties that fail to meet the requirement risk disqualification in certain electoral districts, following a recent Constitutional Court (MK) ruling.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR), Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, said the Court’s decision on sanctions for parties that ignore the quota is final and binding, and will be incorporated into the revision of Law No. 7/2017 on Elections.

“The Constitutional Court’s ruling is final and binding. So, I think we will include it in the revised Election Law,” Dasco said at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, as quoted by Antara.

He emphasized that the ruling supports greater women’s representation in parliament, noting that many women have the capacity to serve at the city, provincial, and national levels.

“We believe there are many women with the capacity, and there are already examples that can be relied upon to fulfill the quota for women legislators,” he said.

On Monday, May 25, 2026, the Constitutional Court issued Decision No. 128/PUU-XXIV/2026, ruling that political parties failing to meet the 30 percent quota for female candidates must be disqualified from elections in the relevant districts.

The decision partially granted a judicial review petition filed by four students: Maya Novita Sari, Imas Dion Febriani, Cahya Camila Evanglin, and Fatati Nailul Munadia, against Article 245 of the Election Law. The Court found the article unconstitutional because it lacked sanctions for parties that ignore women’s representation.

In its legal reasoning, the Court stressed that the quota has been mandatory since the 2009 election, serving as an affirmative policy to balance representation between women and men in government.

It also referred to a previous ruling on the 2024 election dispute in Gorontalo’s Electoral District 6, where parties failing to meet the quota were deemed ineligible to contest.

The Court said sanctions are necessary to uphold fair elections and reduce discrimination against women’s representation in the DPR and DPRD. ***