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Jokowi still pulls strings ahead of regional elections
Despite having ended his decade-long tenure as president and not being a member of any political party, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo continues to flex his political muscle following audiences with President Prabowo Subianto and a pair of gubernatorial candidates who are struggling in opinion polls.
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Congenial: Former president Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo and President Prabowo Subianto pose for a photograph in Surakarta on Nov. 3. (The Jakarta Post/Twitter/Jokowi)
Despite having ended his decade-long tenure as president and not being a member of any political party, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo continues to flex his political muscle, following audiences with President Prabowo Subianto and a pair of gubernatorial candidates who are struggling in opinion polls.
Jokowi stepped out of office on Oct. 20 with a high approval rating and passed the leadership baton to Prabowo, whom he had tacitly supported as his preferred successor throughout the presidential race earlier this year.
While Jokowi has returned to his hometown of Surakarta in Central Java since then, it has been anything but a slow retirement for the former president as he continues to pull strings ahead of the November regional elections.
On Sunday evening, Jokowi welcomed Prabowo at his residence in Surakarta’s Banjarsari subdistrict and stayed there for around 30 minutes before the pair headed out to Omah Semar, a popular local eatery serving Javanese food and snacks.
Regional candidate pairs backed by Prabowo’s big-tent electoral alliance, the Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM), were also spotted in the same restaurant; they are the Central Java gubernatorial candidate pair Ahmad Luthfi-Taj Yasin and the Surakarta mayoral candidate pair Respati Ardi-Astrid Widayani.
Read also: Prabowo visits Jokowi in Surakarta
Taking to social media, Jokowi shared a picture of his dinner with Prabowo, along with a caption saying that he was “delighted” Prabowo had visited him.
