5 July 2004: Indonesia's First Direct Presidential Election Sees Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Elected

On 5 July 2004, Indonesia recorded a new chapter in its political history with the implementation of a general election where the president was chosen directly by the people. Since the 1955 election, the President and Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia had never been directly elected by the populace, but rather by members of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) through a general session. The 2004 election was conducted under a different system from previous years, with the people directly electing the President and Vice President instead of the MPR. Additionally, the people also elected their representatives as members of the House of Representatives (DPR), Regional Representative Council (DPD), and Regional People’s Representative Councils (DPRD). The system for directly electing the president and vice president was established following the third amendment to the 1945 Constitution in 2001. Article 6A Paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution states that the president and vice president are elected directly by the people. Subsequently, on 31 July 2003, President Megawati Soekarnoputri ratified Law Number 23 of 2003 concerning the General Election of the President and Vice President. Based on Article 5 Paragraph (4), a political party or coalition of political parties could only nominate a pair of presidential and vice-presidential candidates if they managed to secure at least 15% of the seats in the DPR or 20% of the valid national votes in the legislative election. To win the presidential election, a candidate pair had to obtain more than 50% of the total votes, with a distribution of at least 20% of the votes in more than half of Indonesia’s provinces. If no candidate pair met this target, the election would proceed to a second round featuring only the two candidate pairs with the highest vote counts to be chosen again by the people. Meanwhile, the general election for members of the DPR, DPD, and DPRD was regulated under Law Number 12 of 2003. However, the legality of the revised legislative election rules at that time was underpinned by Law Number 20 of 2004, as the government officially enacted Government Regulation in Lieu of Law Number 2 of 2004 into law. This step was taken to update several provisions in the procedures for the general election of DPR, DPD, and DPRD members. The election to choose members of the DPR, Provincial DPRD, and Regency/City DPRD was conducted using a proportional representation system with an open list system.