Mahfud Md on Jokowi's Partiality in Election: Go Ahead

TEMPO.CO, Yogyakarta - Vice presidential candidate number 03 Mahfud Md responded lightly to President Jokowi's controversial statement, saying that the latter could do whatever he wanted. “It’s okay if the President said that, just go ahead,” he said after visiting the Annur Islamic Boarding School Bantul Yogyakarta, on Wednesday, January 24.

Earlier today, Jokowi said the president and ministers are allowed to take sides and campaign for any presidential candidate as they refrained from using state facilities.

Mahfud, who serves as Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs and is running with Ganjar Pranowo, refused to confirm whether or not the president's partisanship and involvement in the campaign violated the law. He encouraged journalists to ask the state institutions overseeing the matter.

“Ask the legal department of the Presidential Secretariat about the regulations,” he said.

He also claimed that he would not be bothered if the president, who is the father of vice presidential candidate number 02, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, participated in the campaign.

When asked if Jokowi's statement would worsen the situation ahead of the February election, Mahfud laughed and said, “It's actually cool here [in Bantul].”

Dian Kus Pratiwi, a researcher at the Center for Constitutional Law Studies at the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII), said that Jokowi's statement had caused a public uproar ahead of the presidential election. “That statement has caused chaos during the campaign period, which is quite democratic from the end of 2023 to before February 2024,” she said on Wednesday, January 24, believing that President Jokowi’s statement was misleading.

PRIBADI WICAKSONO (CONTRIBUTOR)

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