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Calls mount for Jokowi to take campaign leave
Jokowi's stunt riled election observers and pro-democracy activists who insist the President was selectively stating provisions and leaving out important details such as the need to take a leave of absence when engaging in campaign activities.
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President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo (center) and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto join a ceremony on Jan. 24, 2024, to handover Hercules military transport aircraft to the Indonesian Air Force. (The Jakarta Post/Antara)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo faces growing pressure to take an unpaid leave of absence following his recent comments about reserving the right to take sides in the 2024 presidential election.
Jokowi made headlines last week when, in response to questions from the press, he said that a sitting president was entitled by law to take sides and campaign for the candidate of his or her choosing, provided that no state facilities are used in the process.
The President doubled down on his remarks in a recorded statement posted to video sharing platform Youtube on Friday in which he held up a large poster and pointed to passages from the 2017 General Elections Law that specifically allowed presidents and vice presidents to participate in election campaigning.
“Don’t interpret it otherwise. I simply conveyed the provisions of the law because I was asked,” he quipped.
The stunt riled election observers, pro-democracy activists and campaigners for certain election tickets, some of them noting that Jokowi was only selectively stating provisions while leaving out other important details, such as needing to take leave when engaging in campaign activities.
“President Jokowi and all his ministers are state officials who must maintain neutrality in elections. They are prohibited from taking actions or making decisions that may benefit or hurt any [election] candidate, including during the campaign period,” said Titi Anggraini, a constitutional law expert at the University of Indonesia.
“If the President wants to campaign, he must take leave, publish his leave of absence documents for the public to see and [tell us] where the documents will be processed, and all that must be done seven days in advance,” she said in a statement after the incident.
