Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – The national election organizing agency officially announced Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Prabowo Subianto as candidates and Ma'ruf Amin and Sandiaga Uno as their respective running mates in next year's presidential poll.

The candidate pairs, who have passed administrative and medical vetting, will pick their contestant numbers on Friday evening (21/09).

"The meeting determined that the two candidate pairs who have registered with the KPU: Joko Widodo-Ma'ruf Amin and Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno, have met all the qualifications," General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Arief Budiman said at a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

All four candidates will receive special police protection from Thursday until the winner of the election is announced. The National Police is responsible for the candidates' security.

The campaign period will officially commence on Sunday. Indonesia will hold simultaneous legislative and presidential elections on April 17 next year.

Nearly 8,000 candidates will compete for seats in the national and regional legislatures, while 807 candidates will seek election to the Regional Representative Council, or DPD, Arief said.

He added that 36 candidates contesting seats in regional legislative councils and six running for seats in the DPD are former graft convicts.

Despite an earlier decision by the KPU to exclude former corruptors from next year's elections, the 42 candidates filed an appeal with the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and a judicial review in the Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.id/news/kpu-announces-candidates-for-2019-presidential-election/