Amendments to Election Law and Women’s Representation in Indonesia

Affirmative policy in the form of a 30% quota for women’s representation in the nomination of legislative candidates is a product of electoral legal reform aimed at promoting gender equality in Indonesian politics. Since its first introduction through Law No. 12 of 2003, the quota policy has undergone four regulatory revisions with progressively stronger normative reinforcement up to the enactment of Law No. 7 of 2017. Nevertheless, empirical data show that women’s representation in the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR RI) resulting from the 2024 General Election reached only 21.9%, still far below the 30% threshold. This study aims to analyze the evolution of women’s quota regulations in the amendments to the election laws and to examine the practice of instrumentalizing women, who are used merely as administrative fillers in the nomination of legislative candidates by political parties. The research method used is normative legal research with a statutory approach and a conceptual approach. The legal materials consist of primary, secondary, and tertiary legal sources collected through library research and analyzed qualitatively. The findings show that the strengthening of quota regulation from a mere recommendation to a mandatory rule accompanied by the zipper system mechanism was not followed by proportional sanctions, thereby creating legal loopholes for political parties to comply formally without substantive commitment. Women are placed in non-competitive rank positions, recruited instantaneously without cadre formation, and do not receive equal allocations of campaign resources. A policy reconstruction is needed, including stronger sanctions, a placement mandate, equal campaign funding allocations, and a transformation of internal cadre-building mechanisms within political parties.