Reforming Indonesia’s Electoral System: Legal and Policy Considerations

The regulatory fragmentation between the Election Law and the Regional Election Law has created overlapping policies, misaligned oversight, and administrative inefficiencies that undermine the legitimacy of democracy in Indonesia. This study aims to analyze the legal and policy challenges in integrating the electoral and regional election systems to improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability in democratic governance. The research employs a normative legal approach through legislative analysis, conceptual exploration, and comparative studies of integrated electoral systems in the Philippines and Mexico. The findings indicate that integrating electoral and regional election systems can reduce operational costs, strengthen oversight mechanisms, and enhance public trust in election outcomes. However, this requires regulatory harmonization, the strengthening of information technology infrastructure, and capacity-building for electoral management bodies. The implications of this research include recommendations for holistic legal reforms to align election regulations and the implementation of evidence-based policies involving various stakeholders in the policymaking process. This study contributes to constitutional law and democratic governance in Indonesia by analyzing the legal inconsistencies between the Election Law and the Regional Election Law and proposing a harmonization framework to improve regulatory coherence and institutional effectiveness