By Ananda Teresia
JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia’s Chief Security Minister and vice presidential candidate Mahfud MD said on Wednesday he would tender his resignation, a decision his aide said was due to President Joko Widodo taking sides in the campaign for next month’s elections.
The office of the president did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation about his role in the presidential election on Feb. 14, in which he will not compete after having served two terms.
Mahfud said in a live-streamed Instagram statement that he would hand over his resignation letter to Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, once he has the chance to meet the president. He did not say why he would be stepping down.
“I will say my goodbye to the president with honour. I will report to him that I am done (with the job),” Mahfud said.
Jokowi, responding to Mahfud’s statement during a trip to Central Java, said he respected Mahfud’s decision, according to local media. The president was due back in the capital Jakarta on Thursday.
Mahfud is the running mate of former provincial governor Ganjar Pranowo, who is up against ex-Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, who is running with Jokowi’s son and is leading the race.
Andi Widjajanto, a senior official for Ganjar’s ticket, told Reuters Mahfud wanted to resign because he saw Jokowi appearing to support Prabowo’s ticket.
“Mahfud thought that the President is getting more and more not neutral in the election, the president is taking sides,” Andi said.
Other presidential candidates have accused Jokowi of using state facilities to help Prabowo and his son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, win.
The president has not responded to questions about the allegations. Last week, Jokowi said he had the right to campaign for a candidate as long as he did not use state facilities.
Andi said Jokowi’s cabinet was “no longer conducive to work in” for Mahfud, as he and some other ministers had not been made involved in decision making processes related to their positions.
Local media have reported that respected Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and several other ministers could quit the cabinet, which could destabilise Jokowi’s administration weeks before the voting day.
In his Wednesday statement, Jokowi said the rest of his cabinet “is very solid” despite Mahfud’s resignation.
News of Sri Mulyani’s potential exit sent the rupiah tumbling last week, prompting the central bank to intervene in the currency market.
Her ministry has said that she was continuing to carry out her duties and on Tuesday, Sri Mulyani held a quarterly news conference on the state of financial markets stability.
Ganjar called on other officials with alleged conflict of interest to follow Mahfud’s footstep and also step down, without naming anyone.
Opinion surveys show the pairing of Ganjar and Mahfud in last place in the race to lead the world’s third-largest democracy, just lagging another candidate Anies Baswedan, but well behind Prabowo.
(Reporting by Ananda Teresia, Stefanno Sulaiman, Stanley Widianto; editing by Martin Petty, Philippa Fletcher and Mark Heinrich)
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