This study analyzes the phenomenon of single couples in the 2024 Surabaya Regional Elections, where all political parties in the Surabaya DPRD support the incumbent Eri Cahyadi. The qualitative approach is used with a case study method, supported by documentary data analysis and statements of party elites from the mass media. The findings of the study show that coalition formation cannot be adequately explained through classical coalition theories such as minimum winning, bargaining coalition, or policy-seeking coalition. On the other hand, party coalitions in Surabaya are more appropriately understood through the framework of political cartel theory (Katz & Mair, 1995), in which parties form strategic alliances to maintain access to state resources, close the space for contestation, and limit the emergence of political alternatives. In this context, all parties are involved in office-seeking and vote-seeking practices that are oriented towards the stability of power and the distribution of electoral incentives without a different ideological basis or policy orientation.
This study formulates the concept of an electoral hegemonic coalition, which is a situation when the dominance of the incumbent power is confirmed through elite consensus and accompanied by the delegitimization of the opposition, resulting in the systemic closure of the competition space. The main conclusion of this thesis is that the 2024 Surabaya Regional Election is not a democratic electoral contest, but a reproduction of a hegemonic power order based on the cartelization of political parties. This has implications for the delegitimization of substantive democracy at the local level and demands the reconstruction of opposition institutions and the expansion of citizen participation channels in urban politics