Papua: The Province Most Vulnerable to the Implementation of the 2018 Provincial Head Elections

On November 28, 2017, the Indonesian Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) released the Election Vulnerability Index (IKP) for the 2018 Regional Head Elections (Pilkada). According to this report, Papua was assessed as having the highest level of vulnerability in the 2018 simultaneous regional elections at the provincial level. The IKP assessment uses three dimensions: participation (35 percent weight), contestation (35 percent), and administration (30 percent).

Papua's IKP was recorded at 3.41, the highest among the 16 other provinces holding simultaneous Pilkada in 2018. This high IKP was due to high scores in the participation dimension (3.83), administration (3.24), and contestation (3.11). Maluku had the second-highest vulnerability level with an IKP of 3.25, with administration scoring 3.46, participation 3.16, and contestation 3.15. West Kalimantan was ranked third with an IKP of 3.04, with contestation scoring 3.48, participation 2.83, and administration 2.75.

Of the 17 regions holding simultaneous Pilkada in 2018, three provinces had high vulnerability with an IKP above 3 on a scale of 0-5. The remaining 14 provinces fell into the medium vulnerability category with an IKP of 2-3. A total of 171 regions would hold simultaneous Pilkada in 2018, comprising 17 provincial elections and 154 regency/city elections.