The Emergence of Sole Candidacy in Elections: Case Study in North Central Timor, Indonesia

Abstract

The sole candidacy in the elections of regional heads in Indonesia will proceed. Despite the fact that the trend was possible due to the regime change in regional elections regulation in 2015, each region showed different variants. In local level, the difference can be seen in terms of the actors, background, and process. This research aimed at explaining the sole candidacy in the case of the challenger's withdrawal in North Central Timor District head elections. This study states that the sole candidacy in 2015 North Central Timor election resulted from the actor's strategic action. The strategic action was based on the asymmetrical resources and the vulnerable field situation which could trigger violence. The explanation differs from several similar cases in Indonesia, especially in Blitar (Sobari, 2017), Pati, and Jayapura (Layet al., 2017). The most important difference is on the context of the race arena, the type of resources considered vital by the actor and the procedure causing the sole candidacy. The political economy perspective (local oligarchy and cartel politics) in Pati and the concept of ideal leadership in Blitar are not at all the appropriate explanation for this.