Semarang was granted city status (
Gemeente) during the
Dutch East Indies period on 1 April 1906, and a city council (
gemeenteraad) comprising 23 members was formed. Together with the city councils of
Surabaya and
Bandung, Semarang's city council was the first in the Dutch East Indies to have elected women as councillors in 1938. During the
Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, the city government was abolished, although a 20-member advisory council was formed to support the Japanese military administrator. The
Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) held a majority in the city council following the
1955 general election and 1957 local elections. The other political parties – the
Indonesian National Party,
Masyumi, and
Nahdlatul Ulama – boycotted the council after PKI legislators elected a PKI mayor in 1957. Following the
transition to the New Order, Semarang's legislative election starting in
1971 like other cities was dominated by
Golkar.
PDI-P became the biggest party in the council after the
fall of Suharto in the
1999 election, with 20 PDI-P councillors. The legislative building is shared with the mayoral office, in a
Greco-Roman style building which was formerly used as a Dutch villa. ==Composition==