Country profile
Indonesia
Republik Indonesia
Asia · South-eastern Asia
ID · IDN
- Capital
- Jakarta
- Population
- 284,438,782
- Area
- 1,904,569 km²
- Democracy index
- 61
- Regime type
- Hybrid Regime
Events
Ballots from Indonesia
The latest elections, referendums, and opinion polls from Indonesia. Community totals are not official results.
No published ballots yet
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Classification
Democracy profile
The score and regime label are assigned by Porto Voto using our in-house democracy index and classification framework, not ratings from governments or external agencies.
Democracy index
61/100
Regime type
Hybrid Regime
Indonesia maintains a competitive electoral process where power transfers occur through periodic voting, yet the political environment remains skewed by significant structural issues. The consolidation of executive power and the influence of established political dynasties often limit genuine legislative oversight, while the independence of the judiciary is frequently compromised by patronage networks and selective enforcement of the law. Media pluralism faces persistent pressure from ownership concentration and occasional state intervention, which narrows the space for investigative journalism and critical dissent. Despite the constitutional guarantees of civil rights, the use of restrictive legislation to penalize online speech and political activism creates a climate of self-censorship. While the country exhibits the outward appearances of a functioning democracy, the prevalence of corruption and the disproportionate advantage held by the ruling elite lead to a system characterized by democratic procedures that struggle to ensure meaningful accountability or genuine political competition.
Last evaluation:
How we classify regimes →World Factbook
Country background
A concise introduction to Indonesia, together with notes on how power and law are organized, to put local ballots in context.
The archipelago was once largely under the control of Buddhist and Hindu rulers. By around the 7th century, a Buddhist kingdom arose on Sumatra and expanded into Java and the Malay Peninsula until it was conquered in the late 13th century by the Hindu Majapahit Empire from Java. Majapahit (1290-1527) united most of modern-day Indonesia and Malaysia.
Traders introduced Islam around the 11th century, and the religion gradually expanded over the next 500 years. The Portuguese conquered parts of Indonesia in the 16th century, but the Dutch ousted them (except in East Timor) and began colonizing the islands in the early 17th century. It would be the early 20th century before Dutch colonial rule was established across the entirety of what would become the boundaries of the modern Indonesian state.
Japan occupied the islands from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia declared its independence shortly before Japan's surrender, but it required four years of sometimes brutal fighting, intermittent negotiations, and UN mediation before the Netherlands agreed to transfer sovereignty in 1949. A period of sometimes unruly parliamentary democracy ended in 1957 when President SOEKARNO declared martial law and instituted "Guided Democracy." After an abortive coup in 1965 by alleged communist sympathizers, SOEKARNO was gradually eased from power.
From 1967 until 1998, President SUHARTO ruled Indonesia with his "New Order" government. After street protests toppled SUHARTO in 1998, free and fair legislative elections took place in 1999 while the country's first direct presidential election occurred in 2004. Indonesia has since become a robust democracy, holding four direct presidential elections, each considered by international observers to have been largely free and fair.
Indonesia is now the world's third-most-populous democracy and the world's largest Muslim-majority nation. It has had strong economic growth since overcoming the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. By the 2020s, it had the largest economy in Southeast Asia, and its economy ranked in the world's top 10 in terms of purchasing power parity.
It has also made considerable gains in reducing poverty. Although relations amongst its diverse population--there are more than 300 ethnic groups--have been harmonious in the 2000s, there have been areas of sectarian discontent and violence, as well as instances of religious extremism and terrorism. A political settlement to an armed separatist conflict in Aceh was achieved in 2005, but a separatist group in Papua continued to conduct a low-intensity conflict as of 2024.