<![CDATA[Although regulatory reforms have strengthened the institutional position of Indonesia’s General Elections Commission (Komisi Pemilihan Umum, KPU) as a national, permanent, and independent electoral management body, contestation over the boundaries of its independence in relation to the House of Representatives (DPR) and the government continues to shape electoral governance in Indonesia. This persistent contestation suggests that KPU independence cannot be understood merely as a normative status guaranteed by the Constitution. This study examines how the concept of mandiri (independent) in Article 22E(5) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia emerged through a political process and how its historical formation has shaped the institutional development of the KPU through the 2024 elections. Drawing on Historical Institutionalism, particularly the concepts of critical juncture and path dependency, the study analyzes records of the constitutional amendment debates, laws and regulations, Constitutional Court decisions, and in-depth interviews with actors involved in the constitutional amendment process and KPU commissioners who served during the 2017–2022 and 2022–2027 terms. The findings demonstrate that the term mandiri emerged from a political compromise in which it replaced the term independent during the constitutional amendment process. This conceptual ambiguity was subsequently reproduced through regulatory changes, commissioner recruitment mechanisms, and the KPU’s institutional relations with the DPR and the government, thereby sustaining contestation over the boundaries of its independence. Theoretically, the study demonstrates that path dependency does not necessarily produce institutional stability; it may also reproduce institutional contestation. The findings further highlight the limitations of legal-formal approaches that conceptualize the independence of electoral management bodies as a static institutional attribute.]]>
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