PHOTO: BBC. Mr Widodo (L) and his running mate Ma'ruf Amin (R), a prominent Islamic cleric.
Voting for in the Indonesian presidential and legislative elections got underway at 7 A.M. on Wednesday in easternmost provinces of Indonesia.
In the presidential race, incumbent Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his running mate, Indonesian Ulama Council Chairman Ma’ruf Amin, ran against retired general and longtime rival Prabowo Subianto and multi-millionaire businessman Sandiaga Uno.
Widodo and Amin of the PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) are running under the campaign slogan “Advancing Indonesia”. Widodo is the first president to come from outside Indonesia’s political elite, securing 53.2% of votes in the 2014 presidential elections.
PHOTO: Getty Images. Presidential Candidate Prabowo Subianto (L) has teamed up with Sandiaga Uno (R)
The latest opinion polls in the lead-up to the election had Widodo-Amin leading by as many as 20 points, with a significant portion of undecided voters. Prabowo-Uno of Gerindra (Great Indonesia Movement Party) is expected to win in Jakarta, however, where they are popular with working and middle classes based on their promise to reduce the prices of electricity and stable foods within 100 days of coming into power.
192 million registered voters will also vote for 711 National Assembly seats, 2207 Provincial seats, and 17610 District seats among candidates of the 20 parliamentary parties. Official results will not be announced until May.
PHOTO: MBC News. Speaker Moon Hee-sang (front row, center) with members of the Education Committee.
On April 15, 2019, Korean National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang met with members of the Education Committee.
In the meeting, he expressed his hopes to invigorate efforts in parliamentary diplomacy from May, stating that as one of the 10 largest economies in the world Korea has more international obligations, and that promoting parliamentary diplomacy would greatly contribute to Korea’s national interest.
He said that the Korean National Assembly will launch a renewed system of Inter-Parliamentary Councils, with the creation of three new Inter-Parliamentary Councils for Korea-ASEAN, Korea-Central and South America, and Korea-Africa and the Middle East with prominent members of parliament. Previously, there were only four Inter-Parliamentary Councils between Korea and the United States, China, Russia, and the European Union.
Speaker Moon emphasized that there will be increased transparency in parliamentary diplomacy, with better monitoring in both pre- and post-process review and Committee approval procedure implementation. He urged fellow MPs to more actively participate in parliamentary diplomacy once the measures are in place.
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
