Two rulings on Gibran's credentials
The Supreme Court granted lawyer Subhan Palal's cassation appeal on October 30, 2026, in Ruling No. 742 K/TUN/2026. It invalidated the high-school equivalency certificate, No. 9149/D.D1/KS/2019, that Gibran had submitted to election organizers, according to Tempo and The Jakarta Post.
That decision followed a separate Constitutional Court ruling on October 6. In Decision No. 01/PHPU.PRES-XXIV/2026, the court dismissed a petition seeking Gibran's disqualification because the petitioners lacked standing. It nevertheless said it found no convincing evidence that he possessed a foreign diploma, certificate or degree equivalent to an Indonesian high school diploma, the minimum education requirement for candidates.
Coalition parties consider a House response
As of early November, several parties in President Prabowo Subianto's coalition were considering how to respond to the Supreme Court ruling, The Jakarta Post reported. The coalition holds a majority in the House of Representatives.
Lawmakers' options include an inquiry, interpellation or use of the House's right to express an opinion. Through the last option, the House can formally allege that a president or vice president is no longer fit for office, potentially initiating impeachment.
The National Awakening Party (PKB) said on November 2 that it was "seriously" considering backing an inquiry. Golkar lawmaker Ahmad Doli Kurnia said his party was still evaluating whether the ruling provided sufficient grounds for action.
Calls for impeachment have also come from protesters. On November 4, dozens of members of the Yogyakarta Special Region (DIY) National Forum demonstrated at the DIY Regional Legislative Council. Citing both court rulings, they symbolically removed Gibran's official portrait and demanded that the House begin impeachment proceedings.
A political inheritance of shifting alliances
The dispute is unfolding among parties whose relationships with Gibran's father, former president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, have changed repeatedly. In a Jakarta Post opinion column, Ahmad Humam Hamid uses Agatha Christie's Orient Express as a metaphor for those entangled histories. His argument is that Gibran faces political liabilities rooted in disputes that predate his own involvement.
Jokowi's rise from mayor of Surakarta to governor of Jakarta and then president relied heavily on the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), led by Megawati Soekarnoputri. His popularity complemented the party's organization, but the partnership broke in 2024 when he supported Prabowo and Gibran rather than PDI-P nominee Ganjar Pranowo. PDI-P subsequently expelled both Jokowi and Gibran.
Other parties have moved between opposing camps. Despite earlier tensions with Jokowi's allies, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party supported the Prabowo-Gibran ticket. Surya Paloh's NasDem moved from backing Jokowi to nominating Anies Baswedan in 2024, then supported Prabowo's administration.
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) supported Prabowo in his 2014 and 2019 contests against Jokowi and remained outside Jokowi's governing coalition. After nominating Anies in 2024, it joined the coalition behind the Prabowo-Gibran government.
Hamid cautions against treating these histories as evidence of a current campaign against Gibran. Past disputes do not establish what the Democratic Party or NasDem intends today, and backing Prabowo does not necessarily resolve a party's differences with his vice president.
Separate wiretapping arrests and police transfers
A separate security scandal emerged on November 3, when news broke that three senior police generals had been arrested over a large-scale illegal phone-bugging operation, according to Asialink at the University of Melbourne. Its targets included state officials, politicians, journalists, businesspeople and civil-society figures, among them Prabowo and two former presidents.
The most prominent general detained was Listyo Sigit Prabowo, the former national police chief who was then heading the Presidential Staff Office (KSP). President Prabowo had replaced him as police chief with Suyudi Ario Seto on October 1.
Within 24 hours of taking over, Suyudi reshuffled 78 generals and 10 mid-ranking officers. By early November, he had conducted five major rounds of transfers. The latest, signed on November 2, moved 264 officers.
On November 4, the armed forces confirmed that about 20,000 marines were being deployed to Jakarta, describing the deployment as a routine readiness measure and denying any connection to the wiretapping case. Media reports said the first units started moving on November 2, one day before the suspects were named.
