Jakarta has been without a vice governor ever since Sandiaga Uno stepped down on August 10 to try his luck as Prabowo Subianto’s running mate in next April’s presidential election.
The winning coalition of parties in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, which include Gerindra and PKS, have the legal right to appoint a new vice governor for Governor Anies Baswedan. One of the names strongly linked to the role was PKS politician Ahmad Heryawan AKA Aher, who served two terms as West Java governor from 2008-2018.
But it looks like Aher won’t be bringing his expertise to the capital as his appointment as vice governor would violate Law no. 10/2016 on Regional Elections.
“Regional heads cannot be demoted to [run as] deputy regional head,” Home Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Bahtiar said today, as quoted by Detik.
Another article in the law states that vice governor candidates cannot have held a regional head position for two successive terms, which Aher has done.
Previously, Aher was going to run in next year’s legislative election before he was reportedly told to pull out by his party while Prabowo was looking for a running mate, leading to rumors that he would be the former general’s choice. After Prabowo ended up choosing Sandiaga, Aher has been heavily linked to Sandiaga’s old post but has so far refused to confirm or deny that he’s in the running.
Other names linked with the vice governor position include PKS’ Mardani Ali Sera and Jakarta City Council Gerindra Faction Head Muhammad Taufik, who also recently registered to run in next year’s legislative election despite the fact that he’s an ex-corruption convict (he was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2004 for a corruption case involving the procurement of election materials). However, the General Election Commission (KPU) rejected Taufik’s application as his past violates the election body’s new ban on corruption convicts.
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