[1] For eligible voters residing outside Indonesia, elections were held on 5 or 6 April 2014 based on the decision of the electoral commission of each different countries.

The 12 national and three Aceh parties together with their ballot numbers were: The schedule for the elections, as determined by the Indonesian General Elections Commission is as follows:[5] On polling day, voters were given four ballot papers, one each for the national People's Representative Council (DPR) and Regional Representative Council (DPD) and one each for their local provincial and regency/municipality Regional Representative Councils (DPRD I and DPRD II).

Voters could vote for just the party, or one of the candidates (or both) by punching a hole in the ballot paper with the tool provided.

[6] For the DPR election, each province was divided into between one and eleven electoral districts depending on population.

Each of these electoral districts elected between three and ten members by proportional representation with a 3.5% national threshold.

Each party's vote in each district was divided by this amount to determine the number of seats won outright.

Only parties with at least 25% of the popular vote or that control 20% of seats in the DPR were able to nominate candidates for the presidential election.