Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chair Megawati Soekarnoputri looks determined to help defend her party’s electoral stronghold of Central Java as she prepares to visit the province once again ahead of local elections later this month.

Two strongly backed candidates are competing for Banten governorship on Nov. 27, with one contender coming from a family that has been influential for decades in Java’s westernmost province and the other having the support of a big coalition that holds a majority in the local legislature.

President Prabowo Subianto has called for a thorough curbing of the country's online gambling crisis, as pressure mounts for authorities to probe former communications and information minister Budi Arie Setiadi.

President Prabowo Subianto gathered his cabinet and regional leaders in Sentul, West Java, on Thursday for a national coordination meeting aimed at ensuring that the central government and local administrations are aligned in executing Prabowo’s key policies for the next five years.

It will be the first time that 37-year-old Gibran, the nation’s youngest vice president, will take command of the government in Prabowo’s absence.

Prabowo will visit a number of countries from Nov. 8 to 19, including Brazil, China, Peru and the United States. 

Presidential spokesman Hasan Nasbi told reporters that in his speech delivered to governors, mayors and regents, Prabowo only gave general directions on where the country is headed in the next five years.

Prabowo hosted Wong for lunch and bilateral talks at Merdeka Palace on Wednesday, where they reaffirmed the “strong friendship” between Indonesia and Singapore, emphasizing shared goals in resilience and development.

Several candidates running in the upcoming regional elections on the ticket of President Prabowo Subianto’s big-tent electoral alliance, the Indonesia Onward Coalition (KIM), appeared to be struggling to maintain their leads in recent opinion polls, indicating the ineffectiveness of the extensive political machinery backing them.

Muhammadiyah has declared vote buying haram for the 2024 regional elections, urging clean elections and condemning the practice as a threat to democracy.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday in Sentul, Bogor, West Java, Presidential Communications Office head Hasan Nasbi said in a video statement on Monday.

As the new government of President Prabowo Subianto took its first strides, both the president and members of his administration opened new Instagram accounts in a perceived attempt to showcase the government’s work to the public.

Executive chairman of Gerindra Party Sufmi Dasco Ahmad confirmed on Tuesday that President Prabowo visited Yudhoyono at his private home in Cikeas, West Java and that the two discussed the state investment firm, among other issues, over dinner.

“This reorganization raises questions over Prabowo’s policy clarity, especially in his first year of the presidency.”

A recent crackdown has raised questions about how far up the chain of command gambling activities go and whether taking down websites alone will be sufficient to stymie the practice.

Hasan Nasbi, chief of President Prabowo's Communication Office, said in a video statement issued on Monday that the meeting was an informal one as indicated by the fact that the President was not driven in a presidential car.

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.

The legal advisory team of former trade minister Thomas Lembong is considering filing a pretrial motion challenging the Attorney General’s Office’s (AGO) decision to name him a graft suspect concerning a sugar import project he greenlighted nearly a decade ago.

Prabowo and Jokowi had dinner at a restaurant in Surakarta, Central Java, on Sunday.

The President took off on a whirlwind visit over the weekend to regional head candidates in Bali that have the backing of his political alliance, even endorsing the Denpasar gubernatorial candidate's promise to build a new airport in the province's north.

Prabowo and Jokowi met at the latter's private residence in Surakarta on Sunday, less than a week before the President embarks on his first overseas tour to five countries, including China and the United States.

President Prabowo Subianto has consolidated his volunteers into a new organization called the National Solidarity Movement (GSN), which analysts believe is the patron’s way of giving back to campaigners while also maintaining support at the grassroots level to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who remains popular after a decade of leadership.

Anticorruption activists and law experts have hit back at the KPK's decision that Kaesang's private jet travel in August did not constitute an illegal gratuity, calling the anigraft body's arguments weak and shallow.

The PDI-P’s own members, gubernatorial candidate Wayan Koster and running mate I Nyoman Giri Prasta, are facing Made Muliawan Arya-Putu Agus Suradnyana, a candidate pair from the Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) that backed President Prabowo Subianto in February’s presidential election.

The agency, a Central Java KPU official and an election law expert all agree that the former president can be a campaign volunteer in November's regional head elections, though the latter says a note of caution is warranted because his son is the incumbent vice president.

In a statement released on Thursday, a former KPK investigator has suggested that a wider network was behind the 2015 sugar import deal approved by then-trade minister Thomas Lembong, who was named as a suspect last month for alleged graft incurring $25.5 million in state losses.

President Prabowo Subianto and Jakarta gubernatorial candidate Ridwan Kamil shared photos of them enjoying a dinner together amid tensions in the Jakarta election.

The arrest of former trade minister Thomas Lembong for offenses he allegedly committed nearly a decade ago has raised a number of questions, including suggestions the investigation could have deep political underpinnings.

Former trade minister Thomas Lembong allegedly incurred Rp 400 billion (US$25.50 million) in state losses for his involvement in a corruption case pertaining to sugar import policy between 2015 and 2016, when he was serving as trade minister under former president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has floated renewed plans for a meeting between its matriarch Megawati Soekarnoputri and President Prabowo Subianto, amid a closely watched race for the Central Java governorship less than a month before voting day.