Jakarta – The leadership of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has decided not to invite outgoing President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Vice President Ma'ruf Amin to the party's national meeting next week.
PDI-P central board member Djarot Syaiful Hidayat claimed on Thursday that the decision was made because the two top politicians would likely be preoccupied with their official duties.
"One thing for sure, the President and Vice President won't be invited. Why? because they are very busy," Djarot said, as quoted by Antara.
The senior PDI-P politician added that only official members of the party would get invitations to attend the meeting.
The PDI-P, which has the largest share of seats in the House of Representatives, is expected to announce whether it will join the coalition supporting president-elect Prabowo Subianto or remain in the opposition at next week's national working meeting.
In April, a senior PDI-P politician said Jokowi and his son, incoming vice president Gibran Rakabuming Raka, were no longer members of the party after they backed rival candidate and election winner Prabowo.
Komarudin Watubun, who heads the ethics division of the PDI-P, said Jokowi and Gibran had not been expelled but had rather ceased to be members when they decided not to endorse the PDI-P's presidential candidate, Ganjar Pranowo.
Helped by Jokowi's tacit endorsement and with Gibran as his running mate, Prabowo won by a significant margin in the Feb. 14 election, taking 58 percent of the vote compared to Ganjar's 16 percent.