JakartaPost-Nov 2, 2026
Calls for Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka to step down have resurfaced after the Supreme Court ruled invalid a certificate he submitted in place of a high school diploma when he ran for office in 2024. In a ruling published on its website on Friday, the Supreme Court granted a cassation appeal filed by lawyer Subhan Palal, overturning a ruling made in August by an administrative appeals court and annulling a certificate recognizing Gibran’s overseas education as equivalent to high school in Indonesia. The certificate was issued by the then-education ministry and subsequently was submitted by Gibran to election organizers as part of his registration requirements for the 2024 presidential election, when he ran as President Prabowo Subianto’s running mate. Gibran, the eldest son of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, attended Orchid Park Secondary School in Singapore and UTS Insearch in Australia, before earning a bachelor’s degree from the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS). In his lawsuit, Subhan had asked the court to declare the certificate invalid and order the ministry to revoke it. Commenting on the ruling, Subhan said the vice presidential post should be declared vacant. “The President should immediately propose two candidates to the People’s Consultative Assembly [MPR], which would then elect one of them as the new vice president,” he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. The Supreme Court ruling came less than a month after the Constitutional Court found no compelling evidence that Gibran holds a high school diploma required to run in the 2024 election. The Constitutional Court however dismissed the case because the petitioners, who included Subhan and former deputy law minister Denny Indrayana, lacked legal standing to file a dispute over election results. In a video statement on Saturday, Denny said the two rulings reflected “a shared understanding that Gibran did not meet the educational requirements under the election law”.
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