The provision requiring a 30 percent quota for women on candidate lists under Law No. 10 of 2008 and Law No. 8 of 2012 was essentially the same. What distinguished the 2014 General Election was the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) willingness to enforce and interpret the provision more firmly. Through KPU Regulation No. 7 of 2013, the KPU introduced an administrative sanction whereby a political party could be disqualified from participating in a particular electoral district if it failed to meet the 30 percent women’s quota in its candidate list for that district.
As a result, all political parties worked hard to satisfy the 30 percent quota requirement in every electoral district in order to avoid sanctions. Since many district- and municipal-level party branches had only a limited number of female party cadres, they often recruited women from outside their regular party structures simply to fill positions on candidate lists.
This study found that many of the women nominated by political parties were aware that they were included merely as supplementary candidates. Meanwhile, women candidates who were genuinely determined to win parliamentary seats often received little support from their parties. Consequently, many female candidates campaigned by simply imitating other candidates rather than developing their own electoral strategies. They also lacked adequate plans to safeguard their votes, making it highly possible for their votes to be appropriated by other candidates.
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