JAKARTA: A ceremony on Thursday (Feb 20) saw 961 regional heads-elect who won the 2024 elections in November take their oaths of office, marking the start of their five-year terms in their respective regions.
Donning white ceremonial dress, governors, regents, mayors and their deputies joined a parade, led by a marching band, and walked from the National Monument (Monas) to the presidential palace compound just opposite Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta to attend the inauguration ceremony officiated by President Prabowo Subianto.
The regional leaders-elect who were sworn in on Thursday were those with uncontested election victories or election disputes that had been resolved by the Constitutional Court.
Dozens of regional leaders still waiting for their election dispute hearings are to be inaugurated in a separate ceremony on a date to be confirmed, after the Constitutional Court rules on their individual cases by Feb 24.
The majority of regional heads-elect were backed by Prabowo’s ruling Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM), while several others had the endorsement of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in their gubernatorial campaigns.
These include Ahmad Luthfi in Central Java, Dedi Mulyadi in West Java, Khofifah Indar Parawansa in East Java and Jokowi’s son-in-law Bobby Nasution in North Sumatra.
The inauguration ceremony on Thursday marked the first time since the end of Suharto’s New Order regime in 1998 that a sitting president swore in hundreds of elected regional leaders en masse.
In the past, a president only inaugurated governors, who would then swear in the regents and mayors of their respective provinces.
