Jakarta, (ANTARA News) - Incumbent President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto have agreed to meet in the near future, according to Chief of the National Mandate Party (PAN) Zulkifli Hasan.

"Jokowi and Prabowo have agreed to meet. We will only arrange the meeting," said Zulkifli Hasan, who is also chairman of the People`s Consultative Assembly (MPR), while at the Presidential Palace compounds here on Friday.

The meeting is aimed to ensure that democratic life during the political year 2019 remains both fair and normal, he said.

The meeting will be held after all events scheduled for the commemoration of the country`s 73rd Independence Day on August 17, 2018 have been completed, Hasan added.

The initiative to hold the meeting came from both sides, he noted.

"It is from both of them. We want the political year, during the presidential election, to be normal," he said.

Prabowo said earlier he planned to visit Jokowi for silaturahmi (a friendly meeting).

"When the time comes, I will also ask time from Mr. Jokowi to meet him. We always want a mature, good and polite democracy," Prabowo said, after a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the Vice President?s official residence here on Wednesday night.

But he has set no date for his meeting with Jokowi.

The chief of the Greater Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party met Jusuf Kalla as a senior politician.

Prabowo said he has had a good relationship with Jusuf Kalla for tens of years. Their relations remains good, although they competed in the 2014 presidential race, in which Prabowo lost to Jokowi.

Reporting by Hanni Sofia
Editing by Suharto




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Editor: Suharto
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