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n what could be seen as an attempt to reach out to more constituents in sharia-based Aceh, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo began a working visit in Banda Aceh on Friday by interacting with hundreds of Muslim clerics from across the province.

The visit is occurring as he struggles to juggle his presidential duties with his 2019 presidential election campaign, for which many have said that catering to Muslims for their votes was crucial for him winning his reelection bid.

In Banda Aceh, Jokowi told the 105 gathered clerics that his administration was committed to supporting the deliberations over a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) and religious education bill, a draft of which was approved by the House of Representatives in October.

“The government wants to allocate funds for Islamic boarding schools, for, for instance, the development of school buildings and the schools’ Quran teachers,” Jokowi said.

The bill, which was proposed by the Islam-based United Development Party (PPP) in 2013, would regulate religious-based educational institutes across the country and would also stipulate budget allocations for Islamic boarding schools and other religious institutes.

The President explained that the bill was drafted as part of an effort to achieve a long-term agenda to improve and develop Islamic boarding schools, of which there are up to 28,000 across the country, and other religious education institutions in Indonesia.

To date, Islamic boarding schools are regulated by Religious Affairs Ministerial Regulation No. 13/2013, while other religious-based educational institutes are governed by Government Regulation No. 55/2007.

Aceh, the only Indonesian province to apply sharia, as mandated by a 1999 law on Aceh’s status as a special region, is among the 10 provinces of the country’s 34 where Jokowi failed to get a majority of votes in the 2014 presidential election.

At that time, Jokowi secured 45.61 percent of the vote, while rival Prabowo Subianto gained 54.39 percent, which experts said was a result of Prabowo’s ability to paint himself as a pious Muslim, while Jokowi was portrayed as a more nationalist candidate.

For his re-election campaign next year that would be a rematch with Prabowo, the incumbent has chosen high-profile Muslim cleric Ma’ruf Amin, a senior figure in Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization, as his running mate, a move that experts said would help Jokowi gain more support from voters in predominantly Muslim regions.

With the Aceh clerics, the President also discussed wasatiyyah (moderate) Islam as he told them about a Wasatiyyah Islam conference in Bogor, West Java, in May, during which 100 Muslim scholars from around the world agreed to commit to promoting moderate values.

Political analyst Arya Fernandes of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that promoting the pesantren and religious education bill was Jokowi’s way to show his commitment to a Muslim agenda and Islamic boarding schools, although it might be hard to finish the deliberations since the lawmakers would be focussed on their own 2019 legislative elections.

“Jokowi, however, needs to introduce more innovations in his political campaign narrative,” he said, adding that even though Ma’ruf could help Jokowi win more Muslim votes, many constituents were independent.