Voter Turnout in Indonesian Legislative Elections, 1955-2019

Indonesia held its first general election (Pemilu) in 1955. This means the country took 10 years to hold an election after its independence.

The country's unpreparedness and ongoing warfare at the time meant that the democratic process could only be held in 1955.

In the 1955 legislative election, voter turnout reached 91.4%. The total number of valid national votes reached 37.79 million, with 257 seats in the House of Representatives (DPR). However, the 1955 election was not held continuously and was only held again in 1971.

In the 1971 legislative election, voter turnout reached 96.6%, the highest in history. Since then, elections have been held continuously every five years until 1997.

Following the resignation of President Soeharto in 1998, Indonesian democracy entered a new chapter where the president and vice president were directly elected by the people in the 1999 election.

In the first legislative election of the reform era, voter turnout reached 92.7% in 1999. This was the lowest since the 1971 election. In fact, legislative election participation rates declined until the 2009 election.

However, legislative election participation increased to 75.11% in 2014 and further increased to 81.69% in 2019.