JAKARTA: A total of 120 Indonesian lawmakers moved Wednesday to challenge the vice president’s eligibility to remain in office, launching a parliamentary process that could lead to his impeachment after recent court rulings raised doubts about his educational credentials.
Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the 39-year-old son of former President Joko Widodo, submitted his resignation during a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday, saying he wanted to avoid a prolonged political controversy.
But lawmakers in the House of Representatives are continuing to pursue a motion over the dispute, because it wasn’t immediately clear whether Prabowo accepted the resignation.
The effort gained momentum Wednesday after the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, said that all of its 110 lawmakers had agreed to invoke parliament’s constitutional “right to express an opinion,” a mechanism that can lead to impeachment proceedings. It needs a minimum of 25 members of parliament to propose the motion.
“We have agreed to pursue a constitutional mechanism by invoking the House’s right to express an opinion,” Utut Adianto, the PDI-P faction leader, told reporters after the party’s internal meeting at the parliament building in the capital, Jakarta.
The controversy over Raka’s academic qualifications escalated last month after the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court ruled that the documents he submitted regarding his overseas education didn’t meet election…
