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Presidential campaign kicks off
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Activists with placards appeal to the public to vote for candidates who care about climate change in the 2024 general election during a rally in Jakarta on March 3, 2023. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
The official, 75-day campaign period for next year’s presidential election kicked off on Tuesday, with two of the three candidates hitting the road to woo voters across the nation.
Campaigning will officially end on Feb. 10, 2024, to allow for three-day cool-off period before voting day on Feb 14. More than 200 million people eligible to vote for a leader to succeed President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo after he ends a decade in power.
Presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and his running mate Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD began their campaign on opposite ends of the archipelago.
Ganjar toured several villages in the country’s easternmost city of Merauke, South Papua, where he met with residents, religious leaders and young voters. His running mate Mahfud, meanwhile, started at the country’s westernmost city of Sabang in Aceh, where he met potential voters and spoke to them in the local language.
"This election reminds us all that there are regions that need our collective attention," Ganjar said in Papua, one of Indonesia’s poorest regions. “If Indonesia wants to improve, life in its villages must be better first. We will move quickly for a better Indonesia, starting with development in villages.”
The former Central Java governor said he and his running mate had chosen the two geographical extremes of the country as the starting points of their campaign because they “want Indonesian unity”.
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