Sausan Atika, Jakarta – The Jakarta City Council declared Ahmad Riza Patria of the Gerindra Party as the Jakarta deputy governor-elect in a plenary meeting on Monday.
"In accordance with the results of the vote count, Ahmad Riza Patria has been elected as the Jakarta deputy governor for the remainder of the 2017-2022 term," said City Council Speaker Prasetyo Edi Marsudi of the Indonesian Democratic Party and Struggle (PDI-P).
Selection committee chairman Farazandi of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said that Riza had secured 81 votes and his opponent Nurmansyah Lubis of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) had gained a mere 17 votes, with two votes thrown out from a total 100 votes.
Prasetyo said that the City Council would immediately submit the decree announcing Riza as the Jakarta deputy governor-elect to the President and the Home Ministry as the legal basis for installing him.
The seat of deputy governor has been vacant since Gerindra politician Sandiaga Uno resigned from the post in August 2018 to be the running mate of Gerindra chairman Prabowo Subianto in the 2019 presidential election. Prabowo has since been appointed as Defense Minister by President Joko Widodo, his erstwhile political rival.
Longtime allies Gerindra and PKS were engaged in a prolonged tug-of-war over the vacant post, with the two parties finally reaching an agreement in February 2019 to submit two nominees from the PKS to the council. However, the sluggish process caused Gerindra to change its mind and nominate Riza as its own candidate.