Jakarta. The General Elections Commission (KPU) is exploring the potential introduction of electronic voting (e-vote) for the 2029 general and regional elections, officials said Monday.

Commissioner Idham Holik told a forum in Bekasi, West Java, that the KPU is currently gathering public input through discussion forums. Feedback will be forwarded to provincial election offices and eventually inform a more detailed review at the national level.

“The potential use of e-voting depends heavily on election laws. The KPU acts only as the implementing body,” Idham said.

While existing regulations mention e-voting, Idham said implementation would require meeting a series of technical and legal conditions. Public support for digital voting has grown alongside rising internet penetration in Indonesia, which reached 229.4 million users as of August 2025, or roughly 80 percent of the population.

Currently, the KPU’s digital capabilities are limited to the Sirekap system, which publishes election results in a hierarchical format. “So far, we only use Sirekap for vote tabulation. For e-voting, we are waiting for legal regulations,” Idham added.

Indonesia’s elections follow a multi-tiered, direct voting system. Citizens vote separately for the president, regional heads, and members of the national and regional legislatures. Presidential and legislative elections are held simultaneously every five years, while regional elections (Pilkada) are staggered.

Voter turnout for the 2024 presidential and legislative elections stood at 81.78 percent, with 164,227,475 valid votes, a slight decline from the 81.97 percent recorded in 2019. The KPU processed votes using a combination of manual counting and its digital Sirekap system, which allowed hierarchical reporting of results but did not facilitate direct online voting.

E-voting could help address Indonesia’s logistical challenges, as the country spans more than 17,000 islands, making physical ballot distribution complex and expensive. The 2024 elections cost an estimated Rp 76.6 trillion (about $5 billion).