Countdown to 2024 Indonesian presidential election: President/Vice-president candidate profiles
Jakarta – With the 2024 Indonesian general and presidential elections within days, we take a look at profiles of the president/vice-president candidates for 2024-2029 presidency period. Who are they? And who do you mostly like to vote?
A. President candidates
Anies Baswedan is an Indonesian politician born in Kuningan, West Java. He was worked as minister of education and culture (Mendikbud) from 2014 until 2017. Baswedan became the governor of Jakarta from 2017 until 2022 after the previous governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) became commissioner for one of national companies in Indonesia. Anies resigned from his Jakarta governor job after in November 2022 he began his candidacy for his 2024-2029 presidential election campaign.
Prabowo is considered (and acknowledged) as the hardest thinking politician since carrying his military experiences during the Soeharto era. After Soeharto's fall in 1998, Prabowo still remained the most vicious politician, according to some political magazines. Having co-founded his own Gerindra Party since 2008 and becoming the party's leader since 2014, Prabowo began his aspiration of becoming the Indonesian president with Gerindra as the winning party in every 5-year election period. In 2019 presidential election, on his first attempt, Prabowo lost to Joko Widodo by unanimous, while Gerindra also lost to PDI-Perjuangan (PDI-P) in that year's general election. Despite his loss, Prabowo was still consoled by President Jokowi to become minister of defense. Will Prabowo become victorious in his 2nd attempt at the 2024 presidential election?
Before beginning his campaign as president candidate for 2024-2029 period, Ganjar (like Anies) became the governor of Central Java since 2013. Ganjar has developed some major regencies in Central Java, such as Semarang, Surakarta, Banyumas, Pekalongan, etc..
B. Vice-president candidates
Known in a political stage as Cak Imin or Gus Imin, Muhaimin has been part of PKB muslim party since 2001, leading the party since 2006. Aside of leading PKB, he had also became minister of manpower (Menaker) in the 2009-2014 period.
One of Jokowi's son, Gibran was chosen as vice-president candidate for 2024-2029 period. Many people thought that prior to Gibran, many names such as Erick Thohir, Ridwan Kamil and Airlangga Hartarto becoming vice-president candidate. However, there are some controversies surrounding Gibran's candidacy. According to the law penned on UUD'45, the minimum age required to become president/vice-president candidate is at least 40 (forty) years old; Gibran is 36 years old at the time he became vice-president candidate on October 16, 2023.
3. Mahfud M.D.
As vice-president candidate for 2024-2029, Mahfud took his justice-serving experiences since he became the chief of Mahkamah Konstitusi (MK) from 2008 until 2013.
So, which one do you choose? Make sure to choose wisely, fairly and properly on February 14, 2024. For election updates, visit kpu.go.id!
