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Analysis: Constitutional and ethical issues with Jokowi running for VP
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s supporters have figured out another way to extend his political career beyond 2024, namely by having him run as vice president.
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President Joko Widodo opens the National Development Planning Conference (Musrenbangnas) National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024 at the State Palace, Jakarta, Monday (16/12/2019). The President conveyed the things that the government will do in the next five years, namely the development of human resources, infrastructure development, simplification of regulations, simplification of bureaucracy and economic transformation. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s supporters have figured out another way to extend his political career beyond 2024, namely by having him run as vice president. The idea gained traction when Constitutional Court spokesman Fajar Laksono raised the issue, but observers say it is just a bad idea from the lens of ethics and, perhaps, the Constitution itself.
Earlier this year, the country’s political landscape shivered amid a controversial discourse on extending Jokowi’s presidency beyond the constitutional two-term limit. Such talks also included the possibility of postponing the 2024 legislative and presidential elections entirely in the name of political stability the country needs to accelerate economic recovery post-pandemic. As the debate died down, so rose another.
Fajar said while the 1945 Constitution bars a president from seeking a third mandate, it does not explicitly prohibit him or her from running for the second highest office. Though Fajar claimed there was no motive behind those remarks, the Constitutional Court underlined that the spokesman was speaking in his personal capacity.
Article 7 of the Constitution says the president and vice president can hold office for five years and after that be re-elected in the same office for only one term. This is also supported by Article 169 of Election Law No. 7/2017, which stipulates that any individual can be elected president and vice president as long as they have never held office for two terms.
Technically speaking, though the two articles may not explicitly keep Jokowi from running as vice president, the issue lies in Article 8 of the Constitution, according to the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) deputy speaker Ahmad Basarah. The article stipulates that if the president dies, resigns, is impeached or is not capable of fulfilling his or her mandate, the vice president will take over. Hence, should Jokowi be elected the vice president, he would not be allowed to step in for the president if any of such things happened.
Not only would such a scenario disrupt the running of the government, but if those in office are unable to make strategic decisions because the acting president cannot be appointed, a reelection will have to be held in the end. This would be no easy feat considering that Indonesia held the world’s largest single-day presidential election in 2019, which has also been deemed the most complex.
Moreover, the internal affairs of the government may not be conducive in that scenario either. The president might not be able to freely critique policies of the previous administration if Jokowi, who would have 10 years of experience in running the country, is still present.
