Topic: What voting asks of you, country by country
How does Indonesia mark What voting asks of you, country by country?
Everyday topic
Indonesia writes the specification of its elections into the constitution itself: Article 22E(1) of the 1945 constitution provides that elections shall be held once every five years, directly, generally, freely, secretly, honestly and fairly. That string of adjectives has a name in Indonesia — luber jurdil — and it is something schoolchildren can recite, not legal decoration. Clause (2) then lists what is being chosen: the House of Representatives, the Regional Representative Council, the president and vice-president, and the regional legislatures. Locking both the cycle and the principles into the constitution is what most distinguishes Indonesia here: when the election happens is not something an incumbent decides, because the number five sits in the highest law there is. The stages and the actual dates are announced by the electoral commission, and the country votes on a single day.
What is this topic?
Article 14 of Brazil's constitution makes voting a duty for citizens between eighteen and seventy, and you must account for missing it. Taiwan's Public Officials Election and Recall Act says in Article 17 that you vote at the polling station of your household registration — there is no absentee ballot, so election day becomes an island-wide journey home. China's constitution reserves direct election for the county and township level. And in the United States, federal law fixes election day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November — a day that is not a holiday. One act, seven different answers to who may vote, where, and whether the day belongs to you.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.