63 Indonesian lawmakers list only a high school diploma, and the law allows it

Sixty-three members of Indonesia's House of Representatives for the 2024 to 2029 term list a senior high school diploma as their highest education, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data drawn from the General Elections Commission (KPU) and reported by Jawa Pos and GoodStats. That is about 10.9% of the 580 seats.

The figure drew public attention because it sits beside a second, larger number: 211 lawmakers, or about 36%, did not state their last level of education in the documents they filed as candidates. In other words, the education background of more than a third of the House is not visible in the official record.

What the data show

According to the BPS figures, the largest group of members holds a bachelor's degree: 155 lawmakers, or 26.7%. Another 119 hold a master's degree (20.5%), 29 hold a doctorate (5%) and 3 hold a three-year diploma (0.5%). The 63 members with a high school education are spread across the country, with the largest numbers elected from Central Java and East Java, ten each, followed by South Sulawesi with six, Jawa Pos reported.

Because 211 members left the field empty, the shares above do not add up to 100%. Analysts and reporters have used the gap to question how transparent candidates and parties are about basic biographical facts.

What the law requires

The minimum is set in Article 240 of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections, which requires candidates for the House, provincial and district councils to have completed at least senior high school or an equivalent. The same rule covers candidates for the Regional Representative Council (DPD), Hukumonline and CNN Indonesia explain.

The requirement has been challenged repeatedly. Petitioners have asked the Constitutional Court to raise the minimum to a bachelor's degree, and in one case to a master's degree, for presidential, regional and legislative candidates. The court has rejected these requests. In one ruling reported by Republika and Detik in September 2025, the judges said the article does not stop parties from nominating people with higher education; it only sets the floor. A draft revision of the election law in 2021 floated a university requirement, but it was never adopted.

The contrast many readers point to

The debate is sharpened by what ordinary job seekers face. Many civil service positions advertised through the national recruitment system ask for a three-year diploma or a bachelor's degree, with a smaller set of formations open to high school and vocational graduates, according to Bisnis.com's guide to the 2026 civil service openings. Private employers set their own rules, but degree requirements are common in office jobs.

Supporters of the current rule argue that representation should not depend on access to university, which remains uneven across Indonesia, and that voters, not diplomas, should decide who is fit to legislate. Critics reply that lawmakers draft and approve complex laws and budgets, and that the public is at least entitled to know what education its representatives have.

How the debate has played out

The question returns at almost every election. When the 2021 draft of a new election law proposed a university requirement for presidential and legislative candidates, several parties objected, Detik reported at the time, and the proposal did not survive. Since then, individual citizens have taken the issue to the Constitutional Court instead, with petitions in 2025 and 2026 asking for a bachelor's or master's degree. Each time, the court left the decision with Parliament, the same body whose members would be bound by any stricter rule.

Why it matters

The two numbers point to different problems. The 63 members with a high school education met the legal requirement, and there is no rule that they should have done more. The 211 members who did not state their education raise a question of disclosure: voters could not see this information when they chose, and it is still not visible now.

Any change to the minimum would require Parliament to amend the election law, since the Constitutional Court has signalled that setting the bar is a choice for lawmakers rather than a constitutional obligation. Better disclosure, by contrast, could be handled through the KPU's candidacy rules for the next election.

What we do not know

The BPS figures rely on what candidates declared. They do not show how many of the 211 members hold degrees, and they do not verify the documents behind the declarations. We have not found an official update of these figures since the BPS report.