Jakarta, IO – By the early afternoon of Wednesday, October 25, 2023, the process of registration of Candidates for President and Vice President in the 2024 Election was completed. Indonesia now has three pairs of candidates for President and Vice President: Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar, Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD, and Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka. They are supported, respectively, by the NASDEM Party, PKB and the PKS Party, PDI-P, and a Coalition of GERINDRA Party, GOLKAR, DEMOKRAT, PAN and BULAN BINTANG Parties.
This is a welcome development for the process of the Presidential Election, which has encountered certain hurdles along the way, as the case in the Constitutional Court regarding the minimum age of the candidates to be altered from 40 to 35 years old, and also the maximum age of the candidates to be 70. The proposal for the maximum age to be 70 was defeated, while the change to a minimum age of 35 was accepted, with the proviso that the candidate has experience in assuming the post of a city mayor or provincial governor. Only after these issues were cleared up could the registration proceed smoothly, with the results as alluded to above.
There was still a protest voiced by a legislator from PDIP, stating that the decision by the Constitution Court is not automatically valid if there is an intervention by the President or the Parliament. But there was nothing from the President, while the Parliament is in recess until October 30. Thus, the Court’s decision stands. It was quite a drama, one that ended very well. And now all must take some rest and wait for the campaign period, from November 28 to a few days before the balloting day on February 15, 2024.
Let us hope we all can control our enthusiasm in campaigning to do it with joy, good spirit and avoid any conflict, that everyone eligible to vote can exercise their constitutional right, and that we will have a new President and Vice President as the result of a healthy democratic process, so they can lead Indonesia further, advancing to 2029 in poverty eradication, health quality, and education, while preparing Indonesia for our Golden Era in 2045, a hundred years following the Proclamation of Independence.
Results from polling in the past have not related to the actual pairing of Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, so we cannot make any comparisons yet. In the past, Prabowo Subianto was running with another name, and the pair was always in the lead among the three. Now we do not yet know with Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka; we still have to wait.
For the sake of our limited source of financing and the high cost of conducting Presidential and General Elections simultaneously, I hope that we will get a clear winner in a single round, such that the new government can start anew. But we all must exercise our constitutional rights first. Yet, should a second round be required, we would of course carry it out with equal enthusiasm. We have been committed to upholding democratic practices, then we must do so correctly, even if it is costly.
Let us go back to US politics for a while. After failing to nominate Jim Jordan from Ohio, Tom Emmer from Minnesota, and the withdrawal of Steve Scalise of Louisiana, GOP Congressmen have now come up with Mike Johnson, also from Louisiana, to be the new nominee for the Speaker, and proceed for the vote. It is unfortunate in my view, as Congressman Mike Johnson is considered to be an extreme rightwinger, no better than Congressman Jim Jordan, who was eliminated from the race previously. He needs to get 217 votes to become the Speaker of the House, to replace Kevin McCarthy who was ousted three weeks ago.
Some GOP Congressmen who answered questions from journalists about this matter stated that Congress had been wasting so much time in the process of electing a new speaker, while they just needed to get this done, so that they could go back to work on more important matters.
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Praise the Lord, fnally, it has been announced that Congressman Mike Johnson from Louisiana managed to gather 217 votes and thereby win the election. And with this, the long and arduous process of electing a new speaker is complete, with Mike Johnson as the new Speaker.
I must say that it is too bad that with all these efforts and time spent in the process, the new Speaker will not be in the same class as Sam Rayburn, Tipper O’Neal, or even Nancy Pelosi, when they were in office. Mike Johnson is known as extreme right, a MAGA type, one whom we cannot expect to have the will to return the GOP back to embrace the GOP values of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.