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Newly inaugurated PKS lawmaker ready to resign for Jakarta deputy governor seat
Despite having just been sworn into office as a legislator on Tuesday, Syaikhu said he was ready to step down from the House to fill the long-vacant deputy governor post in the capital.
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The freshly inaugurated lawmakers during a plenary session at the House of Representatives building in Central Jakarta on Oct. 1. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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mong the 575 newly inaugurated members of the House of Representatives is a politician from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Akhmad Syaikhu, whose name has been around in the Jakarta political scene since earlier this year.
Despite having just been sworn into office as a legislator on Tuesday, Syaikhu said he was ready to step down from the House to fill the long-vacant deputy governor post in the capital.
Syaikhu, who also serves as head of the PKS' West Java chapter, is among two candidates proposed by the PKS and the Gerindra Party – political parties that backed Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan during the 2017 gubernatorial election – to fill the vacant deputy governor post.
The seat has been left vacant for over one year since former deputy governor Sandiaga Uno resigned from the post to run for vice president in the 2019 presidential election in a pairing with Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto.
After a protracted dispute between the PKS and Gerindra, both agreed to propose two candidates from the Islam-based party, namely Syaikhu and Agung Yulianto. The latter is better known as a businessman.
"If the PKS commands me [to join] the Jakarta administration, I would step down [from the House]," he said in a written statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
With his five years of experience serving as deputy mayor of Bekasi, West Java, he expressed a belief that he could perform his duties well as a deputy governor.
