Edward Aspinall 'Vote buying in the 2014 Indonesia election' // 02 Sep. 2014, USyd
Channel: Electoral Integrity Project
Date: 2014-09-02

This talk presents preliminary findings of a research project on patronage politics in the recent Indonesian legislative election. In particular, in one national electoral district in Java where research was conducted, the practice of vote buying – distribution of cash gifts and other goods to voters in the day or two leading up to the poll – was ubiquitous. Many candidates were willing to discuss the practice with our research team, and have provided access to their vote buying lists. This talk presents initial findings by way of addressing several questions that have guided previous research on vote buying in other settings. These are: 1) What structures do politicians construct in order to engage in vote buying? 2) How do they determine which voters to target? In particular, are they interested in mobilising swing voters (vote buying proper) or loyalists (turnout buying)? 3) How do they determine what, when and how much to give? 4) How are payments presented to voters? As a binding transaction? As a gift? 5) What measures do politicians use to minimize risk of wastage and ensure that voters do not renege on their side of the ‘deal’?  By answering these questions we will analyse what has already become a deeply entrenched practice, yet one which is a fraught process offering its practitioners few guarantees of success. 


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The Electoral Integrity Project is an independent research team based at the University of Sydney and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. It explores many issues, focusing upon three main questions: 

- When do elections meet international standards of electoral integrity? 
- What happens when elections fail to do so? 
- And what can be done to mitigate these problems? 

For more information see: www.electoralintegrityproject.com