Indonesia’s Gibran Submits Resignation as 120 Lawmakers Seek Impeachment
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka has submitted his resignation after 120 lawmakers filed a parliamentary motion that could lead to his impeachment, in a political crisis driven by a dispute over his school qualifications.
The Associated Press reported that Gibran, 39, handed his resignation to President Prabowo Subianto during a meeting on Tuesday, saying he wanted to prevent the dispute from prolonging political tensions. Reuters reported that 120 members of the House of Representatives, drawn from eight parties, submitted the impeachment petition on Wednesday.
Neither report said whether Mr Prabowo had accepted the resignation. Lawmakers are pressing ahead with the impeachment initiative regardless, and the House has scheduled a plenary session for Thursday to discuss the proposed inquiry.
A diploma at the centre of the crisis
The dispute turns on documents Gibran submitted to show he had completed education equivalent to Indonesia’s senior high school requirement for presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled on 6 October that it found no convincing evidence demonstrating that Gibran possessed a foreign diploma or certificate establishing completion of an equivalent secondary education. The Supreme Court then said in a ruling published late on Tuesday that it was instructing the education ministry to withdraw Gibran’s education equivalence certificate, which the court had annulled.
Gibran is the son of former president Joko Widodo. One of the lawmakers who signed the petition, Mardani Ali Sera, said Gibran “no longer meets the requirements as vice-president as stipulated in Indonesia’s constitution.”
The main opposition party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, said all 110 of its lawmakers had agreed to invoke the House’s constitutional right to express an opinion, a mechanism that can initiate impeachment proceedings. The proposal was received by Deputy Speaker Saan Mustopa, who said the signatures came from eight factions in the House.
Resignation does not end the process
The resignation offer has not stopped the parliamentary process. Under Indonesia’s 1945 Constitution, a president or vice president may be removed from office if proven to have committed serious legal violations or if they no longer meet the constitutional qualifications for the position.
The petition itself does not remove Gibran from office. It starts a process that must pass through parliament, the Constitutional Court and the People’s Consultative Assembly before any removal can take effect.
That distinction matters. Even if the resignation is accepted, the impeachment motion would still establish a formal record on whether Gibran was eligible to hold the office in the first place — a question that now carries implications for the legitimacy of the 2024 election result and for the political standing of his father’s family.
What happens next
With the petition submitted, the House leadership must form a special committee to determine whether Gibran violated the constitution by serving as vice president despite allegedly failing to meet the election requirements.
If the House adopts an opinion against him, it submits that opinion to the Constitutional Court, which must complete its examination within 90 days. If the court upholds the opinion, the House forwards the proposal to the People’s Consultative Assembly, which must convene within 30 days to decide whether to remove the vice president.
Thursday’s plenary session is the next step. It will discuss the proposed inquiry, and the debate is expected to show how far the cross-party support for the motion extends beyond the 120 signatories.
Why it matters beyond Jakarta
Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy, and the crisis risks further stoking political tensions in a country where the presidency and the vice presidency have been held by a close political partnership since last year.
The case also lands at a sensitive moment for the region. The crisis is unfolding as G7 foreign ministers meet in Paris, and it adds to a crowded agenda for US engagement across Asia, where Washington is already managing trade, security and diplomatic strains.
For now, the central question is a narrow one: whether a vice president whose qualifications have been challenged in two courts can remain in office while parliament, the courts and the assembly decide. The answer will take weeks, and possibly months, to emerge.
