<![CDATA[Political dynasties became a central legal and ethical controversy in Indonesia’s 2024 presidential election, as candidate eligibility, judicial ethics, and incumbent neutrality converged in the candidacy of Gibran Rakabuming Raka. Previous studies by Mukti and Rodiyah (2020), Luluardi and Diniyanto (2021), and Astuti and Setyarini (2024) have examined political dynasties as a democratic tradition, an election-law problem, and a political-ethics issue. Unlike them, this article links Constitutional Court Decision Number 90/PUU-XXI/2023 with democratic backsliding theory, elite theory, and clientelism theory to explain how legally valid procedures may generate unequal democratic outcomes. This normative legal research, supported by statutory, case, conceptual, and comparative approaches, analyses Indonesia’s Election Law, the 1945 Constitution, Constitutional Court decisions, and comparative experiences from the Philippines, South Korea, and the United States. The findings show that Indonesia does not yet have adequate legal protection against dynastic consolidation; existing rules on candidate eligibility, campaign neutrality, and judicial ethics remain vulnerable to conflicts of interest and instrumental legal interpretation. The article concludes that electoral law reform should strengthen candidate eligibility, incumbent neutrality, campaign-finance transparency, and electoral ethics supervision. Its contribution lies in showing foreign readers how emerging democracies may experience democratic erosion through lawful but ethically fragile institutional pathways.]]>
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