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No meeting between Jokowi, SBY last weekend
Presidential spokesperson Bey Machmudin was quoted by Antara as saying that on Sunday President Jokowi was not present at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Stadium, which was reported to be the site of a meeting with former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
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This handout picture from the Presidential Office taken and released on August 17, 2017 shows President Joko Widodo (third left) with his wife Iriana (second left), Vice President Jusuf Kalla (fourth right) and his wife Mufidah (third right), and former presidents BJ Habibie (left), Megawati Sukarnoputri (fourth left), and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (second right) and his wife Ani (right) during a group photo at the State Palace to mark the 72nd anniversary of Independence Day. (AFP/Indonesian Presidential Palace)
T
he Presidential Secretariat denied that a meeting had taken place over the weekend between President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and his predecessor and chief patron of the Democratic Party, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY).
Presidential spokesperson Bey Machmudin was quoted by Antara saying that on Sunday President Jokowi was not present at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Stadium, which was reported to be the site of the meeting.
"No, there's no such a thing. On Sunday, the President was having his internal agenda at Merdeka Palace," Bey said, referring to Jokowi's official residence in Central Jakarta.
Bey added that the heavy presence of presidential security details in and around GBK Stadium on Sunday morning was not designed to prepare a meeting between the two figures, but was in fact part of a plan to secure the area in the event President Jokowi decided to exercise there.
"President Jokowi did not go to the car free day [CFD] event yesterday because his schedule went beyond the CFD hours," Bey said.
President Jokowi and SBY have had a strained relationship, especially following the move from the former's chief of staff Moeldoko in taking over the Democrat's leadership.
Following a series of defeats in the lower court in his legal bid to take over the party, earlier this year Moeldoko filed a case review at the Supreme Court in his desperate move to take control of the Democrat’s leadership.
