THe Conversation: Women’s electability rises in Indonesia’s 2018 local elections

Women’s electability rises in Indonesia’s 2018 local elections

August 10, 2018 12.21pm AEST

https://theconversation.com/womens-electability-rises-in-indonesias-2018-local-elections-101274

Ella S. Prihatini

The Conversation

Of 94 women who ran for local government offices (governor, vice governor, regent and vice regent, mayor and vice mayor), 31 (33%) were elected in 2018. This is almost 2% higher than the previous year’s elections. Overall, women won 31 out of 338 positions (9.2%) as local head and deputy leaders.

Women's candidacy and electability in Indonesia's 2018 regional head election

Level	Number of women candidates	% women's candidacy per level	Elected	% electability (elected /candidacy)	Regional head positions	Gender ratio (elected /total regional heads)
Mayor	16	17,02	4	25,00	39	10,26
Vice Mayor	16	17,02	6	37,50	39	15,38
Regent	31	32,98	11	35,48	113	9,73
Vice Regent	24	25,53	7	29,17	113	6,19
Governor	2	2,13	1	50,00	17	5,88
Vice Governor	5	5,32	2	40,00	17	11,76
Total	94		31		338

Author's tabulation

Chart: The Conversation  Source: Election Commission (2018)

Other groups that are dominant are legislative members (national and local) and former mayors or deputy mayors.

Results from the 2018 regional election show that female mayors and vice mayors are more likely to be successful in keeping their seats compared to those who are trying to extend their posts as regents and vice regents.

In addition, the distribution of candidates’ backgrounds shows legislative members have a good chance of being elected as executives. The political and social capital built up while sitting in parliament can increase women’s likelihood of becoming local political leaders.

Of the 16 women who were elected as mayors, regents and governors, six were incumbents: Mundjidah Wahab (regent of Jombang), Ade Uu Sukaesih (mayor of Banjar), Umi Azizah (regent of Tegal), Puput Tantriana Sari (regent of Probolinggo), Iti Octavia Jayabaya (regent of Lebak) and Tatong Bara (mayor of Kotamobagu).

Women who were part of a political dynasty included Anne Ratna Mustika (regent of Purwakarta), the wife of the previous Purwakarta regent Dedi Mulyadi; and Erlina (the regent of Mempawah), the wife of the deputy governor of West Kalimantan, Ria Norsan.

Various records of the results of the 2018 regional elections show that women’s electability continues to increase even though the rate is gradual. This increase is a positive indication for women’s representation as local political leaders.

With the authority of regional government becoming increasingly significant in determining policies, women who become heads of local governments are expected to strengthen gender mainstreaming in numerous ways. Substantive representation like this will be the biggest test for women leaders, the results of which can then be seen in, among other things, decreasing inequality in school enrolment rates of boys and girls and proportional increases in the budget for health.

Ella S. Prihatini

Measuring women’s chances of winning in Indonesia’s regional elections

April 24, 2018 7.21pm AEST

https://theconversation.com/measuring-womens-chances-of-winning-in-indonesias-regional-elections-95294

The Conversation

The above patterns indicate that voting tends to favour candidates having either family ties or connections with local leaders, experience in the parliament or membership of political parties. These factors are crucial in helping women secure political nomination as local leaders.

Political kinship – as the wife or the daughter of the party elites or the current local leaders – is often perceived as a catalyst for securing public votes.

Having a status as a legislator also enables a candidate to establish an excellent connection with the voters.

In addition, membership of political parties helps female candidates to secure nomination, as most candidates (both males and females) are nominated through political parties under the current political system.

Such backgrounds, however, have raised some concerns.

Power mapping

Due to the low percentage of female candidates in the country’s local elections, I will not measure their electability rates against male contenders. Instead, I will measure their chances of winning from other female candidates.

Let’s start by reviewing the power distribution of female candidates in the previous regional elections.

In 2015, 24 out of 57 female candidates won elections for regents and mayors. Twenty-one of them were elected as regents, while the remaining three became mayors. These winners accumulated 57.44% of votes on average.

The chances for women to win deputy positions at these elections stood at 33.33%, with victories for 22 of the total 66 female nominees. These winners secured 44% of votes on average.

Based on the above data, I argue that women have better chances of winning at the regency level. More than half of female candidates running for regents won the elections. Only one-third of female candidates won mayoralty positions (Table 2).

From various local government positions, women had bigger chances of being elected when they were running for regents (0.67) than for mayors (0.47), deputy regents (0.42) and deputy mayors (0.36).

Table 2. Female candidates and their electability rates based on elected positions (in percentage)

Meanwhile, data from the 2017 elections showed that the turnout of female voters was higher than men’s, standing at 76.2%. Unfortunately, their votes did not all go to female candidates.