August 29, 2024
JAKARTA – The Presidential Office has denied speculation of a conflict between President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and president-elect Prabowo Subianto stemming from remarks the two politicians made that appeared to refer to a recent controversy over regional election rules.
Presidential Communications Office head Hasan Nasbi said the relationship between the two politicians remained harmonious.
“The relationship is overall very good. There are no issues or problems at all between Jokowi and Prabowo,” he said on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com.
rumoured of a rift between the outgoing and incoming presidents arose over the weekend when both figures attended and delivered speeches at the national congresses of political parties.
In a speech at the NasDem Party congress in Jakarta on Sunday, Jokowi commended the party’s decision to support the incoming Prabowo administration, continuing its backing for his administration, which will end in two months.
The President said support “comes in droves” at the beginning of a presidency but “also leaves in droves”, without mentioning any specific names or political parties.
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Jokowi made the statement one day after Prabowo spoke at the National Mandate Party’s (PAN) congress in Jakarta. The former Army general denounced unnamed politicians whose “endless thirst for power” caused them to put their own interests above those of the people.
While some observers took the statements as indicating a split between Jokowi and Prabowo, the defence minister, in the same speech, dismissed any idea that his relationship with the President had started to crack.
President Jokowi was in the spotlight ahead of the simultaneous regional elections in November, after the House of Representatives rushed to revise the Regional Elections Law last week, subverting Constitutional Court rulings on age requirements for candidates and the nomination threshold for parties or coalitions of parties.
The planned revision would have benefitted Jokowi’s youngest son Kaesang Pangarep, who would have been allowed to run in the gubernatorial election, possibly in Central Java.
But the House’s move sparked public outrage and protests in Jakarta and other major cities.
Demonstrators demanded that the legislature and the General Elections Commission (KPU) uphold the Constitutional Court’s rulings. The House eventually dropped the planned revisions, and the KPU complied with the rulings in a regulation it issued on Sunday on nomination processes and requirements.