The council held a plenary session on Tuesday to formally announce the end of Anies and his deputy Ahmad Riza Patria in October.

The City Council followed the plenary session with another meeting at which its nine factions each selected three names from a pool of names for a total of 27. Later, the council voted on the three final nominees for submitting to the Home Ministry for consideration.

The three short-listed figures are Secretary to the President Heru Budi Hartono and Jakarta secretary Marullah Matali, leading with nine votes each, and Sociopolitical Affairs Director General Bahtiar of the Home Ministry.

Aside from the council’s nominees, the Home Ministry also nominates three candidates for the post, although it has yet to do so.

Ministerial spokesperson Benny Irwan said the six candidates would then be vetted in a process involving several ministries and state institutions, including the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the National Police and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

"President Joko Widodo will then discuss the candidates who pass the vetting process with the related ministers and appoint whom he sees fit to be the interim governor," Benny told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

By law, the government may unilaterally appoint high-ranking officials in current posts at the central government or regional administrations, such as directors general and administrative secretaries, as interim regional heads until the definitive leaders are elected in 2024.

Lack of Transparency

No existing regulation mandates regional legislative councils to nominate candidates as interim heads. However, following recent public scrutiny over the absence of transparent and clear parameters in the government's process of appointing interim regional heads, Home Minister Tito Karnavian decided that the Jakarta City Council should be involved in finding Anies' temporary replacement.

An investigation by the Indonesian Ombudsman in July found that the Home Minister had committed maladministration on three separate occasions while appointing interim regional heads since mid-May, including appointing an active member of the Indonesian Military (TNI) as the acting regent of West Seram, Maluku.

The Ombudsman’s investigation also found that Tito had failed to provide the complainants with information on the procedure for vetting candidates when they requested it. He had also ignored two Constitutional Court rulings that require the government to consider devising regulations containing “measurable and clear mechanisms” for upholding democratic principles.

Several provincial administrations, including that of Southeast Sulawesi and North Maluku, have also expressed dissatisfaction over the Home Ministry's pick for their interim leaders. Some even initially refused to install interim heads that were not among their nominees.

Tito said in July that he was drafting a ministerial regulation to establish clear parameters to nominate acting regional heads.

The terms of 101 regional heads are ending this year, including the Jakarta governor. Another 170 top regional posts will become vacant next year, including those in the most populous provinces of West Java, East Java and Central Java.

Strategic position

Researcher Noory Okthariza at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was likely to choose either Heru or Bahtiar as Jakarta's acting governor, because of their close ties to the central government.

"The government has never appointed regional officials as interim regional leaders before, so I am quite certain that Jokowi will do the same this time, especially considering Jakarta's strategic position," he said.

Noory added, however, that this would not necessarily be bad for Jakarta, as it could strengthen the government's support for the city's development plans, especially as the city relinquishes its status as the nation’s capital.

He also noted that Jakarta’s ties with the central government had become looser during five years under Anies, who was largely viewed as Jokowi's political opponent.

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