THE EROSION OF ELECTORAL DEMOCRACY AND VOTER RESISTANCE IN SINGLE-CANDIDATE REGIONAL HEAD ELECTIONS: A CRITICAL INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE 2024 MAROS REGIONAL ELECTION IN INDONESIA

Abstract

The 2024 Maros Regional Head Election (Pilkada), contested by only one candidate pair, reflects the substantive decline of local democracy in Indonesia. While procedurally legitimate, the absence of authentic competition, the dominance of political party coalitions, and structural obstacles to nomination have transformed the election from a deliberative arena into a mere formal mechanism. This research uses a qualitative approach with transcendental phenomenology through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Informants include election organizers (KPU, Bawaslu), political party elites, civil society organizations monitoring the election, survey institutions, and the sole candidate pair.

The research findings reveal five key dynamics: first, restrictive nomination rules that narrow the competitive space; second, the failure of party cadre regeneration that strengthens local oligarchies; third, the erosion of voter agency as reflected in the high number of white groups and invalid votes; fourth, the fragility of electoral legitimacy as more than half of voters do not provide explicit support; and fifth, polarization at the grassroots level manifested through organized movements to vote for the empty box.

Theoretically, this study contributes to the discourse on democratic decline by emphasizing the role of institutional design and the weaknesses of political parties in sustaining oligarchic structures, paralleling similar trends in Southeast Asia. Practically, this study emphasizes the urgency of local political reform, including revising the nomination threshold, providing public funding for independent candidates, revitalizing the party cadre system, ensuring transparency in political financing, and strengthening civil society oversight. Thus, the existence of single-candidate elections cannot be considered merely an electoral anomaly, but rather a structural symptom of weakening democratic institutions that require comprehensive reform     .