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Facing regional power vacuum in 2022 and 2023
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan will be among the regional heads who will become a “nobody” next year.
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A COVID-19 patient (left) casts her ballot as a health officer wearing personal protective gear looks on at a COVID-19 isolation facility that was treating 49 voters in South Tangerang, Banten, on Dec. 9. JP/Dhoni Setiawan (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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ext year, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will be preoccupied with his international commitment as the rotary president of the world’s 20 largest economies (Group of 20), which will peak in October 2022 in Bali, where he will host the summit of the elite club. But at the same time, he will also have to exhaust his energy appointing acting governors, mayors and regents, a job that could distract his focus from the global diplomatic gathering.
I am afraid the Jokowi government is overconfident that it can fully control the regional landscape. Until now, the public remains in the dark as to how the government will manage the power vacuum resulting from the delay of regional head elections, originally scheduled for 2022 and 2023, to 2024.
Brushing aside the potential power vacuum, a senior ministry official told me “everything will be under control, and there is nothing to worry about”. The central government will appoint acting governors, mayors and regents from the bureaucracy, but I am almost certain they will face resistance from local politicians and officials because of their lack of legitimacy: They are simply appointed, not elected.
As many as seven governors 76 regents and 18 mayors will end their five-year terms next year. In 2023, 17 governors, 115 regencies and 39 mayors will follow suit. They will have to wait until 2024 to realize their reelection bid, except for those who are completing their second term.
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan will be among the regional heads who will become a “nobody” next year. For Anies, the new status will be challenging in his effort to maintain popularity ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, which he is expected to contest. He does not have a political party or at least an affiliation to a party. Neither does he hold any post in a national organization that would keep him in the media spotlight.
In 2023, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo and East Java Governor Khofifah Indra Parawansa, who have also been touted as potential candidates for president or at least vice president, will join Anies in the jobless list. But the impact of the election moratorium will likely be less severe for the first three politicians compared to Anies.
The last regional elections took place on Dec. 9, 2020, in nine provinces, 224 regencies and 37 cities. Unlike other elected regional heads, winners of the 2020 regional elections will serve only four years because of the simultaneous regional elections to be held across the country in November 2024.
