Anies Baswedan is Jakarta governor no more starting today, with the presidential hopeful replaced by interim Governor Heru Budi Hartono.
Heru was sworn in by Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian in Jakarta this morning, heralding a one-year term as interim governor for the former presidential secretariat chief.
Anies Baswedan and Ahmad Riza Patria’s terms as governor and vice governor, respectively, were officially declared over during Heru’s swearing in ceremony.
Also Read — NasDem party nominates Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan for presidency
Anies took the gubernatorial seat in 2017 following an ideologically and religiously divisive campaign against former Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama. Anies’ five-year term ended on Oct. 16.
An election for the next Jakarta governor should have been held this year, but it was pushed back to 2024 to comply with a mandate for regional, executive, and legislative elections to be held simultaneously then.
Considering that Heru has been appointed in the caretaker role for a year, the Ministry of Home Affairs may have to extend his term or appoint another interim governor next year.
Heru has served Jakarta in various bureaucratic roles since 1993. Prior to becoming presidential secretariat chief in 2017, he served as North Jakarta mayor in 2014 and the head of the Jakarta Financial and Asset Management Board under Ahok from 2015 to 2017.
For the 2017 election, when Ahok was running as an independent candidate, the former governor notably picked Heru as his running mate. Ahok eventually picked Vice Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat as his running mate after he received endorsement from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
In an interview with Kompas prior to his swearing in, Heru said that President Joko Widodo has explicitly instructed him to focus his efforts on solving three of the capital’s never-ending problems: floods, traffic jams, and zoning issues.
