2018 Makassar mayoral election

2018 Makassar mayoral election

← 2013 27 June 2018 2020 →
Turnout	57.20%[1]
Candidate None of the above Munafri Arifuddin Party NOTA Golkar Running mate Rachmatika Dewi Popular vote 300,795 264,245 Percentage 53.23% 46.77%
Mayor before election Danny Pomanto Demokrat Elected Mayor Position vacant Iqbal Samad Suhaeb becomes acting mayor

The 2018 Makassar mayoral election took place on 27 June 2018 as part of the simultaneous local elections. It was held to elect the mayor of Makassar and the deputy mayor.

Munafri Arifuddin, who was supported by 10 from 11 political parties in the city's Regional People's Representative Council, was the only candidate in an uncontested election. Incumbent mayor Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto initially registered to run for a second term as an independent candidate, but his candidacy was later revoked by a Supreme Court ruling.

Despite running as a single candidate, Arifuddin, who was the CEO of local football club PSM Makassar and nephew of then-Indonesian vice president Jusuf Kalla, lost the vote to an empty ballot (kotak kosong), forcing the election to be repeated in 2020 and for an acting mayor to be appointed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.^[2] Although a lawsuit was brought to the Constitutional Court, the appeal was rejected, making the election the first in Indonesian electoral history in which an empty ballot won.