Indonesia has often cast itself as the third largest democracy in the world, particularly after it started holding direct elections in 2004, six years after Reformasi.

With a population of 260 million, three-quarters of whom are eligible to vote this year, Indonesia is behind only the United States and India in the size of its national electorate. But with less than two months before the April 17 presidential and legislative polls, the country is again forced to confront a rising trend of voter abstentions and its impact on the elections.