New Delhi: Indonesia Tuesday agreed to look at Indian support in building electronic voting machines (EVMs) as Jakarta eyes moving from ballot papers for its polls. Both countries, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ongoing visit to Jakarta, also agreed to cooperate in management of elections.
Government sources said that the agreement to build Indonesian-specific EVMs with Indian support is an “endorsement” of India’s “election management model”.
The two countries announced a “memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of management and technology utilisation in elections,” following the meeting between Modi and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
The expectation is for Jakarta to draw on India’s expertise in the development and deployment of EVMs across the country. India has been using EVMs for its general elections since at least 2004, and began deploying the technologies gradually across the country since the early 1980s.
Indonesia is the world’s third-largest democracy following India and the US. Till date Indonesia continues to use paper ballots in a single-day simultaneous election for the posts of president, vice president, its legislature, as well as at provincial and regency levels, accounting for nearly 20,000 administrative posts across the country.
“Democratic values and unity in diversity have been the shared strengths of India and Indonesia. We are set to further strengthen our democratic cooperation through an MoU between the Election Commissions of both countries,” Modi said in his joint press statement following his meeting with Subianto Tuesday.
In the present system, voters are given five ballot papers to choose their preferred candidates. It is the largest single-day electoral system globally. The last election was held in February 2024, which led to Subianto being sworn in as President of Indonesia.
The new agreement between India and Indonesia is likely to see cooperation in the areas of capacity building, exchange of best practices and cooperation in technology. In November 2025, a three-member delegation from Indonesia’s General Elections Commission were part of a 16-member delegation from six countries that visited India and observed polling in the state of Bihar.
Indonesia is not the first country to indicate interest in the purchase or cooperation in the development of EVMs with India. Bhutan uses Indian-made machines to conduct its polls. These systems are in limited use in Nepal and Namibia as well.
Back in India, the EVMs have time and again come under scrutiny though, with opposition parties raising concern over their use in ensuring free and fair elections.
Modi’s three-day visit to Indonesia began Monday, with the Prime Minister set to depart the country Wednesday for Melbourne, Australia. His tri-nation tour includes a stop in New Zealand before departing for India on 12 July.
It is Modi’s first standalone visit to Indonesia since 2018, and indicates the growing cooperation between New Delhi and Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto was the chief guest to India’s Republic Day celebrations in January 2025. The two countries that had fraught ties for over three decades, have seen an increasing strategic convergence in the last couple of decades.
Apart from cooperation in elections, India and Indonesia announced a raft of deals during Modi’s visit including the sale of BrahMos and Astra missiles between the two countries. Modi also announced the launch of an IIM Bengaluru campus in the South East Asian nation in the near future.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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