Open AccessLocal and National Elections in Remote Indonesia: The Case of Sumba
Author(s) -
Chris Lundry
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
estudios de asia y africa
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.116
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 2448-654X
pISSN - 0185-0164
DOI - 10.24201/eaa.v56i3.2650
Subject(s) - politics , democratization , islam , political science , protestantism , presidential system , population , conversation , geography , political economy , democracy , sociology , law , demography , archaeology , communication
Democratization has brought some significant changes to Indonesia, but in peripheral regions such as the island of Sumba, there remains much continuity. Although the party system has opened up after the fall of Suharto’s New Order in 1999, the ways in which royal status and patronage act to influence elections in Sumba remain, especially at the local and provincial levels. The national political conversation, however, does influence politics in Sumba. In the 2019 presidential election, the perceived threat of political Islam from candidate Prabowo Subianto pushed the predominantly Protestant population of Sumba and its province East Nusa Tenggara to choose his opponent, Joko Widodo, for a second term, similar to other predominantly non-Muslim provinces.