Jakarta – Indonesia votes on Monday in its first democratic election since 1955 to elect a new parliament. A few months later a new president will be elected. The following are details of the voting system under which the election will be held.
Voting system: Proportional representation, on a provincial basis
Total number of voters: 127.6 million
Voting age: 17 years, or younger if married
Seats being contested: 462. Another 38 are reserved for appointees from the military
Distribution of voters/seats: 232 seats will go to the island of Java, where more than 60 percent of the voters live. Another 103 go to the island of Sumatra, the second most populous island.
Number of parties taking part: 48
Type of vote: Three elections are being conducted simultaneously. One is the national election. The second is a provincial election for regional parliaments. In many areas there are also local elections.
Governing body: The General Election Commission (KPU) runs the vote. It has 53 members, five from the government and one from each of the 48 parties taking part.
Monitors: The Central Supervisory Committee is the official monitor. Other monitoring bodies have been invited to observe. There will be around 350 foreign observers, including contingents from the European Union, the U.S.-based Carter Center and the Australian Electoral Commission.
Campaign: The official campaign ends on Friday after which there are two rest days. The day of the vote itself has been declared a public holiday.
Voting times: Polls open at 8am and close at 2pm. Indonesia has three time zones. They will open first in the remote eastern provinces of Irian Jaya and the Moluccas at 2300 GMT on June 6.
Method of voting: Registered voters must bring some identification with them. Their index finger is dipped in indelible ink before they go into the voting booth. As in past Indonesian elections they vote for a party, not a candidate.
Voters put a hole through the relevant party symbol on a sheet containing symbols for all parties taking part. Expatriate Indonesians can vote at their embassies but their votes count in Jakarta, not their home district.
Counting: Votes are counted in the communities where they are cast. The count has to be finished by sunset in order to minimise the chances of cheating. Party representatives and other monitors are allowed to watch the process and all party representatives must sign the piece of paper containing the results, indicating that they accept it, before it is passed on. The results are declared locally before being sent to district level.
Votes are tabulated at a district counting centre. At this stage the results are sent by fax, telephone or radio to a special counting centre in Jakarta's Hotel Aryaduta, where provisional results are expected within 48 to 72 hours.
The official result is conveyed manually to regency, provincial, then national levels and may take up to three weeks.
Distribution of seats: Despite the proportional representation system, parties still have to name candidates for specific districts. Parties choose before the election whether their seats will be distributed according to where they won the highest number of votes or where they won the highest percentage of votes. The first system is simpler but tends to favour cities over rural areas.
Changes from previous elections: The KPU's predecessor was entirely made up of ministers and had authority over the official monitoring body, which is now autonomous.
The election day is a holiday, preventing people from being pressured to vote a certain way by employers before they go to the polls, as frequently happened in the past. Party officials can watch the counting process. Previous elections were limited to three parties.
After the election: The old parliament continues to sit during and after the election period.
The new parliament is expected to be convened some time in July, although it will be formally sworn in in August at a meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Indonesia's highest legislative body. Some parties are pressing for the new parliament to be convened sooner than planned.
The MPR consists of parliament plus 200 appointees. Of the total, 135 will be regional representatives – each of the 27 provinces assigns five representatives from regional parliaments.
The other 65 are from so-called functional groups, representing specific sectors of society such as ethnic and religious minorities, academics and artists. Previously, appointees to the MPR were chosen by Suharto. In November, the MPR will elect a new president.
The Election Law adopted in February includes a clause that the electoral system is to be reviewed within three years. Many analysts believe this system is unwieldy and should be replaced with one based on constituencies. This was proposed but rejected when the current election law was under consideration.