<![CDATA[The transition of local political leadership after an election may reshape power relations, career security, and civil servants' loyalty orientations. This study examines post-election civil-service loyalty and identifies institutional mechanisms that can shift personal-political monoloyalty toward professional-institutional multiloyalty in Jayapura City. A qualitative case-study design was employed. The primary data came from in-depth interviews with eight informants at different levels of the local bureaucracy and were analyzed through thematic coding and cross-informant comparison. The findings reveal a stable-adaptive bureaucracy: public services continued, while rotation, promotion, and acting appointments became sites of career uncertainty. Civil-service loyalty was layered and situated on a continuum encompassing personal, official, institutional, professional, legal, and public-service commitments. Procedural uncertainty, perceived political intervention, organizational culture, superior-subordinate relations, and career security may strengthen personal loyalty. By contrast, a transparent and credible merit system shifts civil servants' dependence from political figures to competence, performance, and institutional procedures. The study argues that merit operates not only as a personnel-management instrument but also as a mechanism for depersonalizing loyalty. Such transformation requires six mutually reinforcing pillars: auditable merit, career protection, continuous ethics and neutrality development, transitional leadership, competence and welfare development, and public-service accountability. Keywords: ASN loyalty, Merit system, Bureaucratic neutrality, Regional elections, Bureaucratic politics.]]>
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