KPU official, Idham Holik, made the statement in response to an earlier remark by Chairman of the Advisory Panel of the United Development Party (PPP) Romahurmuziy, who opined that the candidacy of the Subianto-Raka pair could trigger constitutional issues.
When contacted by ANTARA in Jakarta on Monday, Holik responded to Romahurmuziy's statement by citing Article 15 of KPU's Regulation No.19 of 2023 concerning the nomination of presidential and vice presidential pairs.
The article states that in order to run for a presidential election, state officials should resign from their positions, excluding the president; vice president; leaders and members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the House of Representatives (DPR), and Regional Representative Council (DPD); and regional government's heads.
Furthermore, the article stipulates that ministers and ministerial-level officials intent on running for a presidential election should obtain an approval and leave permit from the president.
Holik then cited article 16, paragraph (1) of the regulation that stated that provisions concerning the mechanism for issuance of approval and leave permits for ministers and ministerial-level officials from the president should be implemented according to applicable regulations.
He also noted that according to the article's next paragraph, the president's approval and leave permit can be obtained during the registration, health examination, and drawing of serial numbers of presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Meanwhile, paragraph (3) of the article states that the approval and leave permit granted by the president should be submitted to KPU by the parties or party coalitions that nominate ministers or ministerial-level officials as their presidential and vice presidential candidates.
According to KPU's Decree No.1378 of 2023, in order to pass the document verification stage, presidential and vice presidential candidates must be at least 40 years of age by the time of the determination of their candidacy, or have/are currently holding positions earned through elections.
Earlier, on Sunday (October 22) evening, Defense Minister Subianto, who holds the chairmanship of Gerindra Party, announced Surakarta Mayor Raka as his mate for the upcoming presidential election.
Following the announcement, President Joko Widodo extended his best wishes to his eldest son in the 2024 presidential election.
The registrations of prospective presidential and vice presidential candidates have been scheduled on October 19-25.
According to Law Number 7 of 2017 on General Election, a presidential candidate can be nominated by a political party or a coalition that won at least 20 percent of the House of Representatives (DPR) seats or 25 percent of the national valid votes in the previous DPR election.
The parliament currently has 575 seats. Thus, presidential and vice presidential candidates will need to get the support of at least 115 seats in the DPR. Candidates can also be nominated by a political party or coalition that contested the 2019 election and garnered at least 34,992,703 valid votes.
Based on data from KPU, the number of people in the Official Voters' List (DPT) for the 2024 General Elections has reached 204,807,222. They comprise Indonesian citizens living in 38 provinces and abroad.
Of the total voters, 203,056,748 live in Indonesia, while 1,750,474 reside in 128 other countries.
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Translator: Narda M, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Sri Haryati
Copyright © ANTARA 2023
