Indonesian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka quit on Thursday, delivering his letter to the leaders of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) hours before the House of Representatives was due to take up a petition seeking his impeachment. The House canceled that plenary meeting after receiving the letter.
Gibran, 39, is the son of ex-president Joko Widodo and has finished two years of a five-year term. He first told President Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday that he wanted to resign, saying he hoped to avoid “a prolonged political controversy.” State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said Prabowo had not rejected the offer, and unnamed sources said Prabowo accepted the resignation. The palace has not confirmed it, as of this writing.
Before the resignation, two courts ruled on his education credentials in October. On October 6, the Constitutional Court dismissed a challenge on standing grounds but saw no persuasive proof that Gibran held any foreign credential showing he finished high school. On October 30, the Supreme Court invalidated the equivalency certificate that stood in for his diploma during his 2024 run.
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On Wednesday, Gibran vowed to fight the rulings, and a bloc of 120 lawmakers spanning all eight House parties filed a motion saying he no longer qualified for the office. That motion was the first formal step toward impeachment.
The MPR now asks Prabowo for two candidates, and it has up to 60 days to elect a successor.
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets over economic hardship, corruption and the government’s response to long-running fires and toxic haze. Analysts say the exit could strain the alliance between Prabowo and Widodo, who helped Prabowo’s 2024 run by letting his son join the ticket.
Gibran is not the only vice president in Southeast Asia facing scrutiny. In the Philippines, Vice President Sara Duterte’s Senate impeachment trial reached its 43rd day on Thursday. House prosecutors dropped three of the four articles, which leaves only the unexplained-wealth charge, and Duterte denies the allegations.
