Jakarta governor hopefuls kick off campaign season

Six candidate pairs for the Jakarta gubernatorial posts officially started the campaign season on Sunday, which will run until July 7.

Jakarta General Elections Commission chairperson Dahliah Umar said the six candidate pairs would begin their two-week campaign by presenting their visions and missions before members of the Jakarta City Council on Sunday afternoon.

“Each candidate pairs must deliver their speech to the council members in 25 minutes on how they will lead the city in the next five years,” she said as quoted by tempo.co.

Tempo.co reported that the afternoon speech from the candidates would be attended by hundreds of people, including activists, politicians, religious leaders, community leaders and journalists.

Dahliah said that after the speech, all of the six candidate pairs would join a public debate, which would be aired live by TV.

“The panel of judges will consist of government experts, urban experts and social welfare experts. We will reveal who they are later,” she added.

The debate will last an hour and 45 minutes in two sessions. During the first half, the candidates will once again present their visions and missions to the public, which will we be followed by a Q&A session with the judges.

During the second half of the meeting, the candidates will debate other matters, such as city issues, the economy and social welfare.

The Jakarta gubernatorial election is slated for July 11.

Candidates in the race are the incumbent Governor Fauzi Bowo and running mate Maj. Gen. (ret.) Nachrowi Ramli; South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin and former marine Lt. Gen. (ret.) Nono Sampono; Surakarta Mayor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and former Golkar lawmaker Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama; retired military police chief Hendardji Soepandji and politician Ahmad Riza Patri; economist Faisal Basri and politician Biem Benjamin; and Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) patron Hidayat Nurwahid and economist Didik J. Rachbini. (asa/swd)