Jakarta (ANTARA) - Chairperson of the General Elections Commission (KPU), Hasyim Asy'ari, officially opened the second presidential and vice presidential debate for the 2024 election at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) on Friday.

"The three vice presidential candidates will take part in this occasion," Asy'ari said.

He asked the public to listen and pay attention to the ideas, vision, and mission shared by the vice presidential candidates, namely Muhaimin Iskandar, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, and Mahfud MD.

The first debate was held on December 12, 2023, at the KPU office in Jakarta. It featured the three presidential candidates — Anies Baswedan, Prabowo Subianto, and Ganjar Pranowo.

Earlier, Asy'ari informed that the vice presidential candidates participating in the debate were allowed to bring stationery, such as paper and pens, to the podium.

However, he said that other tools, such as teleprompters and tablet computers, were not allowed at the podium.

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The KPU also approved the input from the campaign teams of the presidential and vice presidential candidates to provide a podium for the debates.

"From the evaluation of the previous debate, KPU and all candidate pair teams agreed to provide a simple podium for each candidate," he stated on December 18.

The KPU announced the three presidential-vice presidential pairs in the fray for the 2024 Presidential and Vice Presidential Election (Pilpres) on December 13.

Based on the results of the official number draw, Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar were assigned number 1, Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka number 2, and Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD number 3.

The second debate on Friday was scheduled to cover the people's economy, digital economy, finance, investment, taxes, trade, state budget and regional budget management, infrastructure, and city management.

In the first debate, the three presidential candidates made their arguments on governance, law, and human rights, as well as corruption eradication, democratic strengthening, public service improvement, and the creation of harmony among citizens.

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Translator: Narda Margaretha S, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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