From Popularity to Legitimacy: Rethinking Regional Leadership in Indonesian Local Elections through Islamic Constitutional Law

Sukri, Muh
Asti, Mulham Jaki

Jurnal Al Tasyri'iyyah
Vol 6 No 1 (2026): VOLUME 6 ISSUE 1, JUNE 2026

The increasing prominence of political popularity in Indonesian local elections raises questions about the relationship between electoral appeal and the substantive legitimacy of regional leadership. Candidates with extensive public recognition may attract greater voter support, yet popularity does not necessarily reflect integrity, competence, accountability, or leadership capacity. This study examines how political popularity shapes the construction of regional leadership legitimacy in Indonesian local elections and reconsiders this relationship from the perspective of Islamic constitutional law. The study employs a multidisciplinary qualitative approach combining statutory, sociological, and Islamic constitutional perspectives. Using library research, data were collected from electoral regulations, constitutional and legal documents, scholarly literature, and relevant previous studies. The data were analyzed through qualitative content analysis to identify the relationship between electoral popularity, political legitimacy, and the normative requirements of leadership. The findings indicate that political popularity functions as an important source of electoral support and symbolic legitimacy, particularly in an electoral environment shaped by media visibility and public recognition. However, electoral popularity alone provides an insufficient basis for substantive leadership legitimacy because it may obscure considerations of competence, integrity, accountability, and public responsibility. From the perspective of Islamic constitutional law, legitimate regional leadership requires more than electoral acceptance; it is also grounded in principles of justice, trust (amānah), accountability, public interest, and responsible exercise of political authority. The study therefore argues that the legitimacy of regional leadership should be understood as a multidimensional construct in which electoral recognition constitutes one component rather than its sole foundation. This reconceptualization contributes to contemporary discussions on democratic legitimacy and Islamic constitutional governance in Indonesia.