TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jakarta election heats up as Ahok gets more challengers
Adhyaksa Dault
Change Size
Adhyaksa Dault. (Kompas.com)
Incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama is faced with an increasing number of challengers for the 2017 gubernatorial election.
Former youth and sports minister Adhyaksa Dault, who has been nominated as a gubernatorial candidate, met Ahok on Tuesday, expressing his readiness to become a candidate, but stating that he would wait until December to decide. 'Just wait till December. If I am to take part in the race, I will make declaration,' he said after meeting with Ahok at City Hall as reported by tribunnew.com.
Currently, at least three people have expressed their wish to take part in the race. Adhyaksa was nominated by a number of figures including former trade minister Rachmat Gobel, former agriculture minister Suswono and Maj. Gen. (ret) Hendardji Soepandji in a declaration on Sept. 20.
Previously, Gerindra Party nominated the deputy chairman of its Party Advisory Council Sandiaga Uno as the party's Jakarta gubernatorial candidate. Another of Ahok's challengers is Marco Kusumawijaya, an urban expert, who has declared himself an independent candidate.
Adhyaksa praised Ahok for his consistency in promoting good governance and a clean government in the city bureaucracy. He said that if he was elected as governor, he would continue the programs that Ahok had initiated.
Adhyaksa, who is chairman of Indonesia's national executive board of the Boy Scouts (Pramuka), denied that he talked about politics with Ahok.
He said that during the meeting, he invited him to an event to celebrate Pancasila Sanctity Day on Oct. 1 and to discuss the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project that would affect a Pramuka camping ground in Cibubur, East Jakarta. (bbn)(++++)
