Welcome to Indonesia Votes

Welcome to Indonesia Votes, an exciting new part of New Mandala which will bring you the inside story of Southeast Asia’s biggest democratic election–with the bite and irreverence this site’s readers have come to know and love.

In 2014, 187 million voters will elect 19,699 legislators in national and local parliaments. Most importantly, when all the votes are counted, Indonesia will have a new president for the first time in a decade (click here for an explainer on how the whole thing works).

There are always big personalities and juicy stories in Indonesian politics, and this election will have plenty of both. Get ready for lots of photos, videos, and writing with a good sense of humour–both from authors in the field in Indonesia as well as those observing from abroad.

You can keep returning to Indonesia Votes and read something fresh, something different and often more revealing than you would get elsewhere.

You can follow us on Twitter at @IndoNewMandala.

We welcome submissions from anybody who has an informed contribution to add, so send us an email if you’d like to share something.

This is citizen journalism meets academic blogging meets reader commentary. (We might event throw in a few trolls for good measure). Get involved–jump on one of our posts and make a comment to start the conversation. We welcome vigorous debate and disagreement, but remember to play nice.

Your Indonesia Votes editorial team,

Jacqui Baker, Dominic Berger, Liam Gammon and Ross Tapsell.