Introduction

Indonesia will have separate parliamentary and presidential elections in 2009, the third democratic election following the Soeharto regime which ended in 1998. There are 38 national political parties and another 4 local parties in the Nanggroe Aceh Darusallam province eligible to participate in the parliamentary election that will compete for seats in the national parliament, 33 provincial parliaments and more than 400 district parliaments on April 9, 2009. The presidential election will take place on July 6, 2009. If no majority of vote is received by a presidential candidate, the two largest candidates will be eligible to compete in the second round of presidential elections on September 21, 2009.

With a population of more than 220 million, Indonesia’s election is very important for the political and economic stability of the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world outside the Sub-Sahara and Arab regions which has successfully transformed its economy and social development and avoided religious or ethnic tensions.

Overall, the current government sees that Indonesia is well on track toward achieving the MDGs. However, some targets require greater efforts to ensure that Indonesia meets them by 2015. The elections that will choose national and regional parliamentarians and the president for the 2009-2014 period are critical to ensuring that development planning and policies are focused on the achievement of the MDGs. It is the period of “to be or not to be.”

Millennium Campaign Support

CSO Initiatives
The Millennium Campaign supports civil society initiatives in Indonesia to promote MDG commitment among parliamentary candidates, especially woman candidates, during the election campaign both at national as well as at local constituent levels. The CSOs organized local radio and television talk shows in the West Papua, South Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, Jambi, and West Sumatra provinces, with the participation of media and parliamentary candidates, to discuss the MDGs as part of their campaign commitments and political platforms, while also strengthening public awareness of the Goals.

Collaboration with Other Initiatives
Moreover, in collaboration with the Partnership for Governance Reform Indonesia (Kemitraan), the Millennium Campaign organized MDG debates among women parliamentary candidates from 16 political parties which were broadcast nationwide by Metro TV. And, in collaboration with UNDP Indonesia through the Election Multi Donor Programme project and Kemitraan, the Millennium Campaign supported a workshop on “Election, MDGs and Women” attended by more than 120 women parliamentary candidates of 20 political parties to advocate the MDG agenda as their common platform.

Furthermore, the Millennium Campaign designed and produced a poster that promotes women parliamentary candidates, as poverty reduction and the achievement of the MDGs requires larger participation of women in parliaments and they are committed to making the MDGs their political agenda in the parliaments. The poster was distributed to more than 300 women candidates and used by CSOs in more than 15 provinces in their voters’ education programs, media outreach, rallies and other events.

To reach the wider public, the Millennium Campaign produced a 30-second public service announcement (PSA) that promoted women parliamentary candidates, as they understand poverty challenges and are major influences in lawmaking processes that are pro-poor, protect the rights of women and children and promote sustainable development. And, as they are willing to commit themselves to the MDGs, women candidates deserve to be elected and receive more seats in the parliament. As part of the collaboration, Kemitraan broadcast the PSA more than 1,500 times on 2 national TV stations and 22 local TV stations.

Why engage to promote women parliamentary candidates?
There are 11,301 national parliamentary candidates in this year’s election, who will compete for 560 seats representing electoral regions throughout Indonesia. Women candidates comprise approximately about 35.25 percent of this figure. But reflecting the results of the election in 2004, women’s electability is very low. Even though women candidates formed 32.2 percent of total candidates for the national parliament in the 2004 election, there are only 62 women parliamentarians amongst 550 seats in the national parliament – making up about 11.6 percent of the parliament. In other words, only 2.4 percent of women parliamentary candidates were elected out of 2,507 women parliamentary candidates. This shows that women candidates must face tough competition to get elected, as some, if not most of them, must overcome not only economic and social barriers but also political underestimation from women as well as men.

• Take a look at some materials from the Millennium Campaign Indonesia

Indian elections cover an electorate larger than 670 million people - the largest democratic country in the world.
The All India People’s Manifesto is an attempt by WNTA to facilitate a systematic process of engagement with political parties at the state and national levels to integrate the people’s priorities into their agenda for the national elections.

• Click here for to find out more about the People's Manifesto.
• Click here to view the People’s Manifesto poster.


• Click here to visit the Wada Na Todo website.


• Click here to read the Wada Na Todo Peoples Manifesto page.


• Click here to watch a CNBC broadcast of the All India People’s manifesto on April 25th.


• Click here to watch the Wada Na Todo youtube channel.


• Letter of acknowledgment from Nationalist Congress Party acknowledging the All India People’s manifesto