Political uncertainties in Indonesia brought on by the rivalry between president-elect Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi) and defeated candidate Prabowo Subianto may have eased somewhat as both men met on Friday morning (17/10) in Jakarta. After the meeting Subianto stated that he fully supports the Jokowi-led government, while Jokowi stated that he is open to receive criticism from opposition in the House of Representatives (DPR). Jokowi will be inaugurated on 20 October 2014 as Indonesia’s seventh president.

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The government of Indonesia eyes to raise up to IDR 8 trillion (USD $667 million) in a bond auction set for Tuesday (14/10). The proceeds of this bond issuance will be used to finance the country’s state budget deficit in 2014. The Finance Ministry said that the Indonesian government will offer six series of bonds, with maturities ranging between 2015 and 2044. For analysts this issuance is an important test to measure investors’ confidence (particularly foreign investors) in Indonesia’s debt markets.

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Both the Indonesian rupiah exchange rate and Indonesian stocks weakened sharply on Wednesday (08/10) due to internal and external factors. Externally, weakening stock indices on Wall Street on Tuesday (07/10) have a severe negative impact on the performance of Asian stocks today. Wall Street was down on the IMF’s downward revised outlook for global GDP growth in 2014 and 2015, as well as on Germany’s industrial production, which fell the most in five years in August 2014.

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After a long plenary session of the People’s Consultative Assembly (or MPR), Zulkifli Hasan has been elected as the Speaker of the MPR for the period 2014-2019. Zulkifli Hasan, a former Indonesian Forestry Minister, is backed by the Merah-Putih coalition and thus his election constitutes another blow for president-elect Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi). The Merah-Putih coalition is a coalition of six political parties that support vindictive defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.

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Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced to issue a presidential decree to override parliament’s approval of the controversial regional elections law. This new bill passed the House of Representatives (DPR) on Friday last week. Immediately institutions and people objected to the bill - which abolishes direct elections for regional leaders (leaving it to regional legislatures to elect mayors, district heads and governors) - as it is considered a step back for the country’s young democracy and reduces transparency.

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Incumbent Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) announced on Tuesday (30/09) that he prepares a plan to undermine the new bill - accepted by Indonesia’s House of Representatives (DPR) - that blocks direct elections for regional leaders (leaving it to regional legislatures to elect mayors, district heads and governors). Many institutions and people have objected against the new bill as it is regarded a setback for the democratization process in Indonesia. SBY also immediately expressed its concern about the passing of the new bill.

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On 24 August 2014, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website in the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic topics such as the monetary policy of Bank Indonesia, revisions to coal export regulations and franchise businesses, poverty, the telecommunication sector, Prabowo Subianto’s legal challenge, and more.

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It took about six hours for Indonesia’s Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) to read out the lengthy 300-page verdict in the case that was filed by defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, who claimed that the result of Indonesia’s July 2014 presidential election was invalid due to large-scale violations and fraud that allegedly occurred during the voting and counting processes. During the read out it became increasingly clear that the Constitutional Court would reject Subianto’s claims due to a lack of evidence.

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The security status in Jakarta has been raised one day ahead of the ruling of Indonesia’s Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) on Thursday (21/08) as the Jakarta administration anticipates public protests. The Constitutional Court will decide on defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto’s claims that the election result of Indonesia’s July presidential election was influenced by massive fraud and violations (in both the voting and counting process). According to the official result Joko Widodo won with 53.15 percent of the votes.

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The Indonesian rupiah exchange rate was relatively stagnant on Friday (15/08). Based on the Bloomberg Dollar Index, the currency of Southeast Asia’s largest economy had depreciated 0.01 percent to IDR 11,680 per US dollar at 15:40 pm local Jakarta time. At the start of the day, the rupiah depreciated as market players were waiting for incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s state speech ahead of the country’s Independence Day on 17 August. Afterwards, the rupiah gained in line with the performance of other Asian currencies.

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On 24 February 2025, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto was joined by two former Indonesian presidents (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Joko Widodo) when he launched Danantara, Indonesia’s new sovereign wealth fund. Likely, the presence of two former presidents served to underline the historic significance of this launch as well as underscoring broad-based political support for the move.

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When Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto made his first speech as president on 20 October 2024, he stated that Indonesia seeks a “free and active non-aligned path. We don’t want to join any military pacts, [instead] we choose a friendly path with all countries.”

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On Sunday 20 October 2024, Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated as Indonesia’s 8th president at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)/House of Representatives (DPR) building in Jakarta in a ceremony that was witnessed by various well-known Indonesian political figures.

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For Indonesia August is typically a month in which politics are on the foreground as the country commemorates its Independence Day on each 17th of August. This is an important day in Indonesian history as well as an occasion for many festivities and celebrations around the country.

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On 20 March 2024, the General Elections Commission (Komisi Pemilihan Umum or KPU) officially declared Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming the winning pair of the 2024 presidential election (that had taken place on 14 February 2024).

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On Wednesday 14 February 2024, a total of around 204.8 million Indonesian voters were allowed to choose the new president for the 2024-2029 period. And while not all people will take advantage of their right to vote (and there always is a number of invalid votes), we do expect more than 80 percent of that total to have shown up on Valentine’s Day.

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With Indonesia’s legislative and presidential elections approaching (on 14 February 2024), we plan to give an update on the elections each month. As we have repeatedly emphasized, these elections are crucial as incumbent President Joko Widodo cannot compete due to the two-term cap. And so, someone else will be behind the country’s political and economic steering wheel.

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There is quite some controversial material to discuss after the Constitutional Court of Indonesia (Mahkamah Konstitusi, or MK) paved the way for incumbent President Joko Widodo’s eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka (henceforth Gibran), to team up with Gerindra Chairman Prabowo Subianto in the presidential race.

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We plan to give an update on Indonesia’s 2024 legislative and presidential elections each quarter because these elections are quite important for the future of Indonesia. As is widely known, incumbent President Joko Widodo cannot join this 2024 race because of the two-term limit, and so – after one decade in office – Indonesia will have a new president in 2024.

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What marked the year 2019 for Indonesia was national politics. Although in these present times each year feels like a ‘political year’ for Indonesia – as the country’s local elections are spread out across years (and in 2020 it will be the turn of voters in various parts of the Archipelago to elect nine governors, 224 regents and 37 mayors) – the year 2019 was in fact a particularly ‘huge political year’ for Indonesia because of the (general) presidential and legislative elections that were held on 17 April 2019.

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