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Mahfud promises cheaper haj with shorter wait time if elected
Mahfud MD proposed a cheaper haj and a shorter waiting list by negotiating with the Saudi government to transfer unused quotas from other countries.
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Handle with care: Officers assist an old haj pilgrim on June 1, 2023, upon his arrival at a hotel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Nearly 67,000 Indonesian haj pilgrims in 2023 were more than 65 years old. (Antara/Wahyu Putro )
Vice presidential candidate Mahfud MD promised to lower the cost of the haj and shorten its waiting list if he and his running mate Ganjar Pranowo win the election.
“Can the haj be cheaper and have a shorter queue? We will try,” Mahfud said on Thursday, as quoted by the Antara news agency.
The incumbent coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister relayed this promise to the crowd at the Nahdlatut Thullab Islamic Boarding School in Sampang, East Java.
At the national forum, religious leaders conveyed their support for Ganjar and Mahfud.
Saudi Arabia announced in July that Indonesia would have a quota of 221,000 pilgrims for the haj season in 2024. Later in December, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo negotiated an additional 20,000 pilgrims with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.
Mahfud said Indonesia could utilize the unused quota of some countries, such as Australia and the Netherlands, which do not have large Muslim populations. He added that each country had a quota of 1 percent of their population for each year’s haj season.
He said some countries did not fully use their haj quotas, while in Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, the waiting list can take up to 30 years.
