A gubernatorial election was held in Jakarta on 11 July 2012, with a second round run-off on 20 September 2012 to elect the

governor of Jakarta The Jakarta Special Capital Region is administratively equal to a province with special status as the capital of Indonesia. Instead of a mayor, the executive head of Jakarta is a governor. The governor of Jakarta is an elected politician who, alon ...

for the next five-year term. Incumbent governor Fauzi Bowo was running for a second successive term. The first round resulted with two top-voted candidates, Joko Widodo and Fauzi Bowo to advance to the runoff as neither received majority of votes in the first round.

Quick count Quick count is a method for verification of election results by projecting them from a sample of the polling stations. The similar Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) is an election observation methodology that is typically based on a representative ra ...

results released in mass media after the second round voting indicated that Joko Widodo is projected to win the runoff with 54% of popular votes. Fauzi Bowo later conceded and congratulated Joko on 17.00 WIB. Official results were announced on 29 September. Widodo won the election with 53.82% of votes against Bowo's 46.18%.

Candidates

Under regulations, only political parties having 15 seats or more in the regional parliament (DPRD) can put forward a candidate. Political parties with fewer seats can put forward a candidate only if they have acquired support from other political parties. Independent candidates are able to run if they have gathered at least 407,340 signatures from local residents, which will be verified by the local election committee. Candidates that declared their candidacy: *

Fauzi Bowo Fauzi Bowo (born 10 April 1949) is an Indonesian politician and diplomat who was the Indonesian Ambassador to Germany from 2013 to 2018. He was the governor of Jakarta between 2007 and 2012 and previously served as deputy governor from 2002 to 20 ...

, running with Nachrowi Ramli, endorsed by PD, PKB, PAN, Hanura, plus a faction in

PDS PD, P.D., or Pd may refer to: Arts and media * ''People's Democracy'' (newspaper), weekly organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) * ''The Plain Dealer'', a Cleveland, Ohio, US newspaper * Post Diaspora, a time frame in the ''Honorverse'' ...

. * Joko Widodo, running with Basuki Cahaya Purnama, endorsed by

PDI-P The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle ( id, Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, PDI-P) is an Indonesian political party, and the party of the current President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo. The PDI-P was founded and is currently led by Me ...

and

Gerindra The Gerindra Party (acronym for , ) is a political party in Indonesia. Formed in 2008, Gerindra serves as the political vehicle of former general Prabowo Subianto. It is presently the third-largest party in the House of Representatives, where it ...

. * Alex Noerdin, running with Nono Sampono, endorsed by

Golkar ) , foundation = , youth = AMPG (Golkar Party Young Force) , women = KPPG (Golkar Party Women's Corps) , newspaper = ''Suara Karya'' (1971–2016) , headquarters = Jakarta , ideology ...

, PPP, and a faction in

. *

Hidayat Nur Wahid Hidayat Nur Wahid (born 8 April 1960 in Klaten, Central Java) was the Speaker of Indonesia People's Consultative Assembly (''Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat''/MPR) for the 2004–2009 period. He resigned as the leader of Prosperous Justice Party ( ...

, running with Didik Rachbini, endorsed by PKS. * Faisal Basri, running with Biem Benyamin, independent candidate. *

Hendarji Supanji Hendardji Soepandji (born 10 February 1952 in Semarang, Indonesia) is a retired general of Indonesian army. He was one of six candidates for 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election. He is the brother of the former Indonesian Attorney General, Hendarm ...

, running with

Ahmad Riza Patria Ahmad Riza Patria (born 17 December 1969) is an Indonesian politician who served as the 15th Vice Governor of Jakarta from 2020 to 2022. He previously served as a Vice Chairman of Second Commission of the People's Representative Council, Second ...

, independent candidate. Parties endorsing Noerdin and Nur Wahid in the first round later gave their support to Fauzi in the second round.

Campaign and issues

While the campaign for the elections had been mostly peaceful, there were a wide range of issues carried into the campaign. Notable ones including traffic management, flood control, accusation of money politics by some candidates, electoral roll irregularities, and smear campaign dominated the campaign.

Traffic management

Traffic has long become the main issue for many Jakartans. Traffic jams up to 3–5 hours happens during weekdays rush hour and frustrate many locals. Public transportation was also heavily lamented due to poor service and maintenance. All candidates in the race brought forward this issue and promised various approaches to this problem.

Money politics

Money politics is a problem that has marred the democratic process in Indonesia ever since the

transition to democracy Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...

. There have been many cases of candidates giving money or other incentives to the electorate to influence their voting intention. In the first round of this election, anti-corruption NGO, Indonesia Corruption Watch found at least 27 cases of money politics during the campaign. The campaign of incumbent governor Fauzi Bowo was the main offender with 12 cases, followed by Alex Noerdin's campaign with 6 cases. The electoral commission was also deemed failed to avoid these cases to happen regularly.

Electoral roll irregularities

The electoral roll (''Daftar Pemilih Tetap'') had created much controversy since it was made public. The roll which approved by the electoral commission on June 2, was rejected by all candidates except the incumbent governor. Irregularities include double registrations, inclusion of deceased voters, fake names, or redundancy. Since then, all five candidates appealed the electoral commission to revise the electoral roll, and if necessary, postpone the election. The electoral commission mostly kept silent on this issue and promised to do some revision on the roll. The revision process was controversially ineffective and was heavily criticized. The head of the commission was reprimanded for this issue.

Results

First round

Preliminary results released by several media after first round of elections showed Joko Widodo leading with 43% of votes, followed by Fauzi Bowo with 33%, Hidayat Nur Wahid with 11%, Faisal Basri with 5%, Alex Noerdin with 4%, and Hendarji Supanji with 2%. Official results were released on 19 July. The result has shocked every single pollsters, as most have predicted Gov. Fauzi to win the election in a landslide and without having to go for a runoff.

Second round

results released in mass media after the second round voting indicated that Joko Widodo is projected to win with 54% of popular votes. Fauzi Bowo congratulated Joko at 17.00 WIB. Official second round results were released on 29 September.

Table

, - bgcolor="#E9E9E9" align="center" ! colspan="2" rowspan="2" align="left" , Candidates ! rowspan="2" colspan="2" align="left" , Parties ! colspan="2" , 1st round ! colspan="2" , 2nd round , - bgcolor="#E9E9E9" align="center" ! width="75" , Votes ! width="30" , % ! width="75" , Votes ! width="30" , % , - , bgcolor="" , , align="left" , Joko Widodo , align="left" , Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle (''Partai Demokrasi Indonesia-Perjuangan'') , PDI-P , , % , , % , - , bgcolor="" , , align="left" ,

, align="left" ,

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

(''Partai Demokrat'') , PD , , % , , % , - , bgcolor="" , , align="left" ,

, align="left" ,

Prosperous Justice Party The Prosperous Justice Party ( id, Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, sometimes called the Justice and Prosperity Party), frequently abbreviated to PKS, is an IslamistAl-Hamdi, Ridho. (2017). ''Moving towards a Normalised Path: Political Islam in Contempo ...

(''Partai Keadilan Sejahtera'') , PKS , , % , colspan="2" rowspan="4" bgcolor="#E9E9E9" , , - , bgcolor="" , , align="left" , Faisal Basri , align="left" ,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, Ind , , % , - , bgcolor="" , , align="left" , Alex Noerdin , align="left" ,

Golongan Karya ) , foundation = , youth = AMPG (Golkar Party Young Force) , women = KPPG (Golkar Party Women's Corps) , newspaper = '' Suara Karya'' (1971–2016) , headquarters = Jakarta , ideology ...

(''Partai Golkar'') , PG , , % , - , bgcolor="" , , align="left" , Hendardji Supandji , align="left" ,

, Ind , , % , - , colspan="8" bgcolor="#E9E9E9" , , - ! colspan="4" align="left" , Total ! ! 100% ! ! 100% , - , colspan="8" bgcolor="#E9E9E9" , , - , colspan="4" align="left" , Valid votes , , , % , , , % , - , colspan="4" align="left" , Spoilt and null votes , , , % , , , % , - , colspan="4" align="left" , Turnout , , , % , , , % , - , colspan="4" align="left" , Abstentions , , , % , , , % , - , colspan="4" align="left" , Registered voters , , bgcolor="#E9E9E9" , , , bgcolor="#E9E9E9" , , - , colspan="8" bgcolor="#E9E9E9" , , - , colspan="8" align="left" , Source
Electoral Commission of Jakarta (first round)Electoral Commission of Jakarta (second round)
!
KOMPAS.com (second round)
-> District results of the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election

District results of the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election

References

{{portal, Indonesia Elections in Jakarta 2012 Indonesian gubernatorial elections 2010s in Jakarta July 2012 events in Asia September 2012 events in Asia