Indonesia’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered a revision of election rules to lower slightly the age of eligibility for candidates running in the country’s gubernatorial elections, to the reported benefit of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s youngest son. In its ruling, judges stated that the minimum age requirement of 30 applies at the time a regional official is sworn in rather than when they are nominated to run in an election, the news site Tempo reported . This very specific tweak is an apparent attempt to permit Kaesang Pangarep, Jokowi’s second son, to run in the upcoming Jakarta gubernatorial election, which will take place on November 27 along with elections for hundreds of governors, deputy governors, district heads, and municipal mayors.
Kaesang will turn 30 in December – the month after the election, but before the date of inauguration for the victorious candidates. The Supreme Court ruling bears a close resemblance to the Constitutional Court ruling in October that allowed Jokowi’s other son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to run in February’s election as vice-president alongside Prabowo Subianto. That ruling effectively waived the minimum age requirement of 40 for any politician elected to power at lower levels, where the age requirement is lower.
(Gibran was elected as mayor of the city of Solo in Central Java in late 2020.) A week after the ruling, Prabowo named Gibran his running-mate, and the pair won a decisive victory at the February 14 election. T.