Indonesia held its first-ever simultaneous regional elections on Wednesday, with millions of voters across the archipelago casting their ballots for over 500 local elective posts.

The fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia has over 200 million registered voters, with the elections covering 37 governors, 93 mayors, and 415 regents. The winning candidates will be sworn in next February and will serve a five-year term.

The regional polls were held nine months after the Feb 14 national elections that saw former defense minister Prabowo Subianto elected as president.

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While 18 parties took part in the regional elections, most of the local candidates ran under one of the two dominant parties: Prabowo’s Advance Indonesia Coalition (KIM Plus) and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), headed by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The most closely watched race is the election of the next governor of Jakarta.

The country’s capital is home to over 11 million people, and the post is widely seen as a stepping stone to a national role. Prabowo’s predecessor, Joko Widodo, was Jakarta’s governor before he was elected as president in 2014.

In this year’s Jakarta gubernatorial race, KIM Plus supported former West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil against PDI-P member Pramono Anung, a former cabinet secretary.

The simultaneous elections were held to synchronize the regional cycles and are in line with the decentralized governance system that was put in place in 1999.

Yosef Nae Soi, a former vice-governor of East Nusa Tenggara province, said he is optimistic that Prabowo could do better than his predecessors in synchronizing central and regional government policies.

“Simultaneous regional elections make it possible for him to do such work. Surely, he would be flexible where necessary,” Soi told China Daily.  

Holding simultaneous regional elections is expected to narrow development gaps between eastern and western Indonesia, as regional administrators are authorized to implement their own policies that are best suited to the needs of their local constituents.

Poverty persists in the less-developed eastern provinces — notably the islands of Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua. Western Indonesia includes the island of Java, which is home to the country’s capital and accounts for more than half of Indonesia’s GDP.

Lucius Karus, a researcher at Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) in Jakarta, said synchronizing central government and local programs would work effectively only if newly elected administrators are adequately capable and, more importantly, if they can carry out their responsibilities independently.  

“Regional administrators are tied to the interests of their political parties,” Karus told China Daily, noting that this usually poses a challenge to elected officials.

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Efatha Filomeno Borromeu Duarte, a political science lecturer at Udayana University in Bali, said that government data has shown that only 54 percent of national priority programs have been implemented effectively in the regions over the past five years.

“The regional heads are generally held accountable to their (political) parties, not focusing on the real needs of people,” Duarte said.

He said that local officials in the resort island of Bali have to diversify its economy by reducing its reliance on tourism. Duarte recalled how the COVID-19 pandemic nearly crushed Bali’s economy.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.

Prime Sarmiento in Hong Kong contributed to this story.