Yogyakarta. Indonesia officially commenced the preparations for simultaneous gubernatorial, mayoral, and regent elections on Sunday evening, following the Feb. 14 general elections for the president and legislative members at district, provincial, and national levels.

The ceremony marking the start of regional leader elections was held at the Prambanan Hindu Temple in Klaten, Central Java, attended by top election and government officials.

"To all election officials across provinces, regencies, and cities in Indonesia, let’s accomplish the mandate to organize the 2024 regional government elections on a high note,” General Election Commission (KPU) Chairman Hasyim Asy’ari said in his speech.

The November 27 elections will elect governors in all 38 provinces, regents in 416 regencies, and mayors in 98 cities across the country.

They will be preceded by the lengthy process to select eligible candidates, candidate registrations, data verifications, voter identification, and the campaign period. 

Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian said earlier that the presidential and legislative elections in February have already become the world's largest single-day elections.

Comparing the process to other nations, Tito said that India, the world's largest democracy, spans months for general elections, conducted with varying time frames across states. In the United States, a more extended election period is facilitated by absentee voting and separate polls for Congress.

In Indonesia, over 200 million registered voters participate in electing the president and parliamentary members on a single day, managed by over 8 million election officials through a centralized system overseen by the KPU, Tito said.

The November election will involve roughly the same number of voters with more decentralized authorities to organize the polls and count and certify the results in the respective region.