Two front runners in keen race to become Jakarta’s next governor

JAKARTA – Indonesians will go to the polls again on Nov 27, this time to elect local leaders, including the prominent Jakarta governor position.

With three candidates jostling to take the post, two have emerged as front runners.

The fight has been especially keen, as the post is widely seen as a springboard to the presidency, with the winner typically enjoying national media attention and high exposure to top political elites. Former president Joko Widodo is among notable politicians who have served as governor of Jakarta, where the current voting population stands at about 8.3 million. 

According to the latest opinion polls in late October by Indonesian newspaper Kompas, the top two most popular candidates are two-time elected leader Ridwan Kamil, 53, and former minister Pramono Anung, 61. Both seasoned politicians led the polls with 38.3 per cent and 34.6 per cent respectively.

They told The Straits Times in separate interviews that they have plans to boost foreign investment to help fuel Jakarta’s economy, and hope to tackle persistent problems such as traffic jams and floods.

The third candidate, 58-year-old retired police general Dharma Pongrekun, trailed way behind them with 3.3 per cent of the support. He did not respond to requests for an interview.

The remaining 23.8 per cent of the 1,200 survey respondents said they were undecided.

Former West Java governor Ridwan is a cadre from Golkar, Indonesia’s oldest political party which former president Suharto was also part of. He is also the chosen governor candidate of a 13-party government coalition that includes President Prabowo Subianto’s Gerindra party.

Mr Pramono, cabinet secretary in the past administration under Mr Widodo, is backed by the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which has the largest number of seats in the national Parliament. He is a member of PDI-P.

Mr Dharma is a non-partisan candidate.

While Jakarta has lost its status as the capital of the world’s biggest archipelagic nation, the metropolis will still retain its role as the economic hub of Indonesia. The new capital Nusantara has been officially named as the seat of the government but is still undergoing construction.

This is the first time that local elections are being held simultaneously across Indonesia’s 37 provinces and more than 500 regencies and cities.

The Nov 27 polls will pick 37 governors for the provinces, including for Jakarta which is designated a province, for five-year terms. Only Yogyakarta – Indonesia’s 38th province – will not hold the vote, as it is led by a hereditary sultan.

The 415 regencies, which are districts grouped under the provinces, will each elect a regent. Each of the country’s 93 major cities will choose a mayor.

Mr Ridwan Kamil

He was governor of West Java from 2018 to 2023 and Bandung mayor between 2013 and 2018. He is the only candidate who has experience as an elected leader.

Among his plans for Jakarta, he wants to do more to make the city more attractive to tourists.

“Our study shows tourists coming to Indonesia spend only a night in Jakarta and numerous nights in Bali. We will increase the average length of stay in Jakarta to two or three days in five years’ time,” Mr Ridwan told ST in an interview on Oct 19.

He graduated from the Bandung Institute of Technology and taught there before getting a master’s in urban design at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked as an architect in the United States and Asia including Singapore, before joining politics.

Top three campaign policies:

– Turn the Thousand Islands region into a special economic zone with lower taxes to attract investments in hotels and luxury shopping outlets. The Thousand Islands is a group of small islands that boast sandy beaches and rich marine diversity. It is a one- to three-hour boat ride north of Jakarta.

– Relocate offices from Jakarta’s old town area in the northern tip of the city and refurbish canals taking inspiration, he said, from Singapore’s Boat Quay. The vacated buildings in the old town area could be used for university classrooms and dormitories, as well as arts and cultural activities.

– Continue reclamation projects located north of Jakarta, while guaranteeing monthly incomes of any affected fishermen.

Mr Pramono Anung

The career politician is known to be amicable and well-received by fellow politicians from a wide range of parties.

He was a minister in Mr Widodo’s past Cabinet and represented the PDI-P. Mr Pramono was often asked to act as a mediator between Mr Widodo and PDI-P’s chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri whenever they had differences. This earned him a reputation as an effective communicator.

Mr Pramono, too, is keen to develop tourism around Jakarta and hopes to build hotels in the Thousand Islands. The islands now offer only homestay rooms and small chalets, due to barriers created by the local administration.

“If I were elected, I would launch a competitive bidding process open to any interested party; even foreign investors may join,” Mr Pramono said in a Sept 30 interview.

Top three campaign policies:

– Encourage development and investment in the Thousand Islands region, including the building of five-star hotels.

– Set up a fund with an initial US$3 billion capital to invest in projects with higher economic multiplier effects in Jakarta and satellite towns.

– Revive a project to build a multi-billion-dollar giant sea wall on the northern coast of Jakarta to protect the city from rising seawater.

Mr Dharma Pongrekun

The retired police general’s final assignment in the force was as an analyst covering officers’ education and training. He was previously assigned to the detective department and drug enforcement department before he was appointed as a deputy head of Indonesia’s national cyber and encryption agency. Mr Dharma, who joined the force in 1988, retired in 2024.

He managed to garner more than 840,000 signatures of support from Jakarta residents before he was cleared to run for governor. The law requires a minimum of 620,000 signatures for anyone to run on a non-partisan ticket. Local media, however, reported complaints from Jakarta residents who said they never signed support letters but were recorded as among the 840,000 declared supporters.

Top three campaign policies:

– Give free training to micro, small and medium businesses to help them scale up their operations.

– Install an anti-flood system for Jakarta, which could disperse rain clouds to areas upstream of the ex-capital.

– Provide and renovate houses in Jakarta’s slums.