Regional elections, 9 December 2020

Tropical Cyclone (and Covid-19), March–December 

A tropical cyclone seedling in the Indian Ocean, south of West Java, impacted high waves in the waters west of Lampung and south of Java at the start of December 2020. The seedling caused high rainfall in several areas across Indonesia, causing flash floods and overflowing rivers. Approximately 25,000 residential and commercial houses were submerged (Permana 2022). 

Indonesia was also grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic, its first case having been identified in March 2020. In April, the Indonesian government declared Covid-19 a national disaster and emergency (Permana 2022). 

Impact on the electoral process 

During the election period flooding affected three districts in Banten province: Serang,  Pandeglang and Cilegon. Several Cilegon City ballot boxes, as well as paper forms, were damaged as a result of being submerged while stored in a warehouse. All of the damaged election materials were replaced ahead of election day (Ridho et al. 2020).   

In Serang, several polling stations were either flooded or cut off due to the floods. Many polling stations were moved to housing centres where displaced residents were sheltered. In some cases, election materials were transported by boat (Anwar 2020).  

The government welcomed the turnout as being above target, at 76.9 per cent (Wibisono 2021).