In practice, due to the dominance of the ruling party Golkar, regional leaders were effectively central government appointees.
After the fall of Suharto, the national House of Representatives passed a law in 2004 which mandated direct elections of local leaders.
[2] The law also set that election dates for the regional leaders would be set by the respective regions, with terms of leaders expiring in December 2004 – April 2005 being extended to May 2005.
[6] Afterwards, in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2020, all local elections in the same year are held simultaneously nationwide[7] and, starting in 2024, all local elections nationwide are held simultaneously.
[8] Prior to this, some provinces had already synchronized their gubernatorial and city/regency elections, such as Aceh in 2012.