Gibran Bacawapres Prabowo, Jokowi's Relationship With Megawati Remains Good

President Jokowi and PDIP Chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri (ANTARA)

JOKOWI - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said his relationship with the Chairperson of the PDI-P (PDIP) Megawati Soekarnoputri was fine even though her son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, was promoted as a vice presidential candidate (readwapres) accompanying Prabowo Subianto.

"It's fine," said Jokowi after attending an economic seminar in Jakarta, quoted by ANTARA Tuesday, October 24.

Gibran, who is a PDI-P cadre, was officially promoted by the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM) as a vice president to accompany Prabowo Subianto's presidential reading.

Prabowo announced Gibran's candidacy last Sunday night accompanied by the general chairman of his coalition members consisting of the Golkar Party, Democrats, Gelora, PAN, PBB, Garuda, Prima, and Gerindra.

KIM plans to register Prabowo and Gibran as presidential and vice presidential candidates for the 2024 General Election to the KPU on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, PDIP formed a coalition with PPP, Hanura, and Perindo to carry the presidential reading of Ganjar Pranowo and the vice president Mahfud MD. The coalition formed by PDIP and other parties has officially registered Ganjar and Mahfud with the KPU.

Registration for the presidential and vice presidential candidates was opened by the Indonesian KPU on 19-25 October 2023.

As regulated in Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections (UU Pemilu), pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates are proposed by political parties or coalitions of political parties participating in the election who meet the requirements for obtaining seats of at least 20 percent of the total number of seats in the DPR or obtaining 25 percent of valid votes nationally in the previous election for members of the DPR.

Currently, there are 575 seats in parliament so that pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 2024 presidential election must have at least 115 seats in the DPR RI. In addition, candidate pairs can also be promoted by political parties or a combination of political parties participating in the 2019 Election with a total valid vote acquisition of at least 34,992,703 votes.