Race for Indonesian presidency officially begins

[JAKARTA] Election fever is in the air all across Indonesia, as the countdown is on to find finding the successor to President Joko Widodo as the leader of South-east Asia’s largest economy.

The poll will take place on Feb 14 next year, and over 204 million Indonesians are expected to cast their ballot.

On the first day of registration on Thursday (Oct 19), the first two pairs of candidates formally submitted their applications to the General Election Commission.

The first to do so were former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and his running mate Muhaimin Iskandar, who is the chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB).

The next pair to turn up were former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo and Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Mahfud MD.

Anies and Ganjar, along with retired general Prabowo Subianto, are expected to be the three main contenders for the top job in the world’s third-largest democracy and its most populous Muslim-majority country.

Prabowo is widely expected to pick the president’s eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming, as his running mate. The decision is proving controversial, coming days after a ruling by the Constitutional Court that candidates do not have to meet the minimum age of 40 years if they have previously won a regional election.

President Widodo has been barred from a third term, in line with Indonesia’s Constitution. With registrations closing on Oct 25, here is a snapshot of the leading candidates to succeed him:

Anies Baswedan

The 54-year-old politician and academic was Jakarta’s governor from 2017 to 2022.

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While not a member of any political party, he has gained support for his candidacy from three parties, including a secular party in the ruling coalition and the conservative Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

When he was 38, he was appointed the chancellor of the Islam-oriented Paramadina University in Jakarta, making him the youngest chancellor in Indonesia’s history.

He also founded a schools-based movement called Indonesia Mengajar, under which young professionals were deployed to elementary schools as teachers in the country’s rural areas for a year.

Anies will contest next year’s election with PKB chairman and former manpower minister Muhaimin Iskandar. Known as Cak Imin, he has the backing of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), a socio-religious organisation with a large traditionalist Muslim following.

Ganjar Pranowo

Indonesia’s largest party, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle or PDI-P, has pinned its hopes of staying in power on Ganjar Pranowo, the governor of Central Java, one of the country’s most populous provinces.

Like Jokowi, the 54-year-old Ganjar came from humble beginnings. Over the years, he has gained the support from many ordinary Indonesians as an independent leader from outside the political and military elite.

With stints as a lawmaker and provincial governor under his belt, he hopes his popularity on social media and with young voters will be enough to lead him to victory.

His running mate, Mahfud MD, is a 66-year-old native of Madura who once served as constitutional court chief justice and who was known for handling the country’s major corruption cases.

Prabowo Subianto

Prabowo, 72, comes from an elite Indonesian family and commands a huge following, despite unproven accusations of human-rights violations over the kidnapping of democracy activists during the economic and political turmoil of the late 90s. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Prabowo, who lost in consecutive bids to become president in 2014 and 2019, has gained momentum following a rebranding campaign in which he reached out to young people with a large social media presence.

He has not named his running mate yet, but political analysts and pundits are confident that he will soon unveil Widodo’s son Gibran Rakabuming for his ticket.

The 36-year-old Gibran is now mayor of Solo, a city where Jokowi first rose to power as a leader. He graduated from the Management Development Institute of Singapore and was a food and beverage entrepreneur behind a number of local brands.