Digital Election Platforms, Administrative Performance, and the Accountability Squeeze: Recentralization by Design in Indonesia’s Regional Elections

Digital election platforms increasingly mediate administrative performance, transparency, and accountability in electoral governance. Examining Indonesia’s regional elections, this study analyzes how such platforms shape administrative performance and redistribute accountability. A qualitative design combining documentary analysis, platform-artifact analysis, and documentary process tracing compares three centrally governed platforms operated by Indonesia’s General Elections Commission: Sidalih for voter registration, Silon for candidate nomination, and Sirekap for results reporting. Findings show that these platforms operate as performance regimes, translating electoral work into visible signals such as synchronization status, validation outcomes, upload completion, dashboard display, correction records, and verification pathways. Platform architecture simultaneously centralizes operational control over data structures, validation rules, user permissions, publication logic, and correction procedures, while subnational offices retain implementation responsibility. Such arrangements create an accountability squeeze: implementing units become increasingly visible as responsible actors without commensurate control over technical conditions shaping performance outcomes. By linking platform-mediated visibility to asymmetries in control, this study shows how digital transparency can strengthen administrative legibility while redistributing responsibility, risk, and authority across organizational levels.