Record number of female legislators elected into the House

The House of Representatives welcomes a record number of 102 female legislators for the 2009-2014 period, or around 18 percent of the total seats. Some of these elected legislators have beaten their male rivals in the last legislative elections in April.  In West Java II district, for example, Rieke Diah Pitaloka from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) gathered more votes than Taufik Kiemas, an incumbent legislator and also husband of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Actress Nurul Arifin from the Golkar Party, Megawati’s niece Puti Guntur Soekarno and daughter Puan Maharani, both from PDI-P, earned the highest votes in their respective districts.  Puan even managed to gain more votes than Hidayat Nur Wahid, who is the People's Consultative Assembly Speaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). According to the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party (PD) contributes the highest number of female legislators with 37 out of the total available 150 seats for the party.

PDI-P comes in second with 19 out of the available 95 seats for the party.  Meanwhile, Islamic based party PKS becomes the least contributor of female representatives with only three out of the available 57 seats for the party.  The highest number of women seated in the House was recorded during the 1987-1992 period, when 65 women, or 13 percent, won the House seats. This number dropped to 9 percent in the 1999-2004 before rising slightly to 11 percent during the 2004-2009 period.(The Jakarta Post)