The Kingmakers: Millennials Will Determine Indonesia's Next President With Nearly 69 Million Voters

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - The millennials of Indonesia are set to be the kingmakers of the 2024 general elections with 68,8 million total voters. According to the General Elections Commission (KPU), 33.6% of voters are in the millennial category. 

Next in the line are the zoomers with 46,8 million voters or 22.8% in the voting registry list.

"Gen Z is 46,800,161 people, baby boomers are 28,127,340 people, and pre-boomers are 3,570,850 people," said member of KPU Betty Epsilon Idroos as quoted by the state news agency Antara, Monday (3/7/2023). 

According to Pew Research Center, millennials are those who were born between 1981 and 1996. The youngest of millennials are now in their late 20s, the oldest are in their early 40s. 

Overall, the voters who are under 40 are exceeding 100 million voters. The figures from KPU:

1. Age 40 and older: 98,448,775 voters (48.%)
2. Age 17-30: 63,953,031 voters (31,2%)
3. Age 31-40: 42,398,719 voters (20,7%)
4. Under 17: 6,997 voters (0,003%)

Betty explained those under 17 who already got married could vote.

The legal age for voting in Indonesia is 17, while women could legally marry when they are 16. And in terms of sexes, Indonesia has equal voters among men (102,218,503) and women (102,588,719). 

Also read: Anies and Ganjar Are Flopping Among Gen Z Voters

2024 elections will be held in Valentine 2024. Three popular candidates are former Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan; Governor of Middle Java Ganjar Pranowo; and Minister for Defense Prabowo Subianto. 

The next election will be Prabowo's third attempt to win the presidency. In the previous election, he lost the election against President Joko Widodo. Prabowo received strong support from conservatives who oppose Jokowi, but Prabowo before eventually joined the government.

Last month, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the government would be ready in case there will be a two-round election. She said the budget will be "considerably significant".

"If there will be two rounds, we already have a contingency budget," said Sri Mulyani in her ministry office. 

Sri Mulyani said her ministry was still organizing the budget, and she did not want to reveal the number. She said that President Jokowi will directly tell the parliament. 

In June last year, the parliament already met with KPU, and they estimated the budget for general elections would reach Rp76,6 trillion or $5 billion. But that figure would be used for all the elections in 2024, including mayoral, gubernatorial, and parliamentary elections.

Although the election is less than a year away, neither Anies, Prabowo, nor Ganjar has announced their vice presidential candidates. 

Some of the popular names in vice presidency list include Agus Harimukti Yudhoyono (son of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono), Sandiaga Uno (minister for tourism, former Prabowo's running mate in 2019), and Erick Thohir (minister for state-owned enterprises).

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Agustina Melani contributed to this report.