A gubernatorial election was held on 15 February 2017 to elect the governor of

Banten Banten ( id, Banten; Sundanese: , romanized ''Banten'') is the westernmost province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta on the east, the Java Se ...

province for the five-year term between 2017 and 2022. The election was held simultaneously with other provincial and local elections across the country as part of the 2017 local elections. It pitted incumbent

Rano Karno Rano Karno (born 8 October 1960) is an Indonesian actor and politician. From his acting career he is known for starring in the 1979 film '' Gita Cinta dari SMA''. On 30 October 2011 he was elected Deputy Governor of Banten. He has served as acti ...

against

People's Representative Council The People's Representative Council of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Republik Indonesia, DPR-RI), also known as the House of Representatives, is one of two elected chambers of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), ...

member and former mayor of

Tangerang Tangerang (Sundanese: , ) is a city in the province of Banten, Indonesia. Located on the western border of Jakarta, it is the third largest urban centre in the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area after Jakarta and Bekasi; the sixth largest city pro ...

Wahidin Halim. Wahidin, supported by a coalition of 6 parliamentary parties, secured a

landslide victory A landslide victory is an election result in which the victorious candidate or party wins by an overwhelming margin. The term became popular in the 1800s to describe a victory in which the opposition is "buried", similar to the way in which a geol ...

in his former constituency at Tangerang, and defeated Rano with a margin of 90,000 votes despite losing in 6 of the other 7 regencies and cities.

Background

Ratu Atut Chosiyah Ratu Atut Chosiyah (born 16 May 1962) is a former governor of the province of Banten, Indonesia. She was suspended from office in 2014 because of a corruption case. She held office for several terms. Before her election as governor in 2006, she ...

served as the governor of Banten - Indonesia's fifth most populous province - between 2007 and 2014, until she was arrested for a bribery scandal related to an election dispute. Some has described her family's influence in the province as a "political dynasty". 2017 marked the second time Indonesia held local elections simultaneously, after the 2015 local elections. After some time being acting governor, former actor

who was also Atut's deputy was sworn in the governor to replace her in August 2015. The

General Election Supervisory Agency The General Election Supervisory Agency ( id, Badan Pengawas Pemilihan Umum, BAWASLU) is an independent supervisory agency tasked with oversight the administration of general elections throughout Indonesia. Originally established by Law No. 22 ...

(Bawaslu) identified Banten as a vulnerable region for the 2017 election, alongside

Aceh Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a s ...

and West Papua. In particular, the body cited the strong presence of political dynasties.

Timeline

Registration for the candidates opened between 28 and 30 August 2016, with the campaign period ranging from October 2016 to February 2017. The voting itself took place on 15 February 2017. The results were planned to be released in March 2017.

Candidates

Opinion surveys

Issues

Affiliation with Atut's dynasty became a major issue in the campaign. Both candidates accused each other of being affiliated with her dynasty: Rano-Embay because Rano was Atut's deputy, Wahidin-Andika because Andika is Ratu Atut's son. Atut herself voiced support for her son.

Results

On 5 April, KPU officially announced Wahidin-Andika as the winning pair.

Aftermath

Following the defeat, PDI-P leader

Megawati Soekarnoputri Diah Permata Megawati Setiawati Sukarnoputri (; born 23 January 1947) is an Indonesian politician who served as the fifth president of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004. She previously served as the eighth vice president from 1999 to 2001. Megawati i ...

removed the party's leaders in Banten. Rano brought the election to the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

, which rejected his lawsuit (citing that the difference in votes was too large) and declared the election valid. On 12 May 2017, Wahidin was sworn in as the new governor.

References

{{Indonesian local elections, 2017 Elections in Banten 2017 Indonesian gubernatorial elections