Indonesia's Vice-President Gibran Resigns as Prabowo's Ruling Alliance Shows Strain

Indonesia's Vice-President, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, has submitted his resignation, according to an aide who spoke to the BBC. The aide, Budi Arie, said the letter went directly to President Prabowo Subianto on Wednesday. Whether Prabowo has accepted it is not yet clear.

The immediate cause is a Supreme Court ruling that a high-school document used in Gibran's 2024 election campaign was invalid. More than 100 lawmakers then backed a parliamentary initiative that could have opened the way to impeachment proceedings against him.

The question of his schooling has followed Gibran for a long time. He studied in Singapore and Australia, and to show his credentials he relied on an Indonesian equivalence certificate. Indonesian law requires a vice-president to have completed senior secondary school or its equivalent. The Supreme Court found no evidence that he had graduated, saying nothing showed he held a foreign diploma or certificate that could serve as the basis for equivalency. It also took into account a Constitutional Court ruling from earlier in October that reached the same conclusion. Gibran had argued that going on to university was enough to prove he had finished senior high school. On Tuesday, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said, Gibran asked for a chance to challenge the ruling and prove his credentials were legitimate.

His path to the ticket was already contested. In 2024 Gibran was 36, and he became eligible to run only after a controversial Constitutional Court ruling exempted him from the minimum age of 40. His place beside Prabowo was part of an alliance between his father, the outgoing president Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, and Prabowo, who had been Jokowi's bitter rival.

That alliance now looks strained. Since taking office, Prabowo has shown little interest in advancing Jokowi's signature project, the building of Nusantara, a new capital. He has instead directed much of the state's resources to his own flagship programme of free school meals nationwide. Over the past year he has also moved many Jokowi loyalists into new roles in a series of reshuffles, among them the long-serving finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

Last week, authorities arrested presidential chief of staff Listyo Sigit Prabowo, who is no relation to the president, on suspicion of wiretapping Prabowo. The president sacked him a day later. Listyo, a former national police chief, is widely regarded as a long-time ally of Jokowi, and many read the dismissal as a sign the alliance was crumbling. On Monday, three members of Prabowo's cabinet collectively resigned from the party led by Kaesang Pangarep, Jokowi's youngest son, saying they wanted to concentrate on their duties in Prabowo's administration.

The resignation lands at a difficult moment for the government. The free school meals programme is struggling for funding. Parts of the country have recently fought their worst wildfires in a decade. The stock market faces a crisis amid allegations of widespread manipulation. On Tuesday, students across Indonesia held demonstrations over the government's handling of several issues, including the environmental crisis and corruption.

What to watch now is Prabowo's response to the letter, and whether the reshuffling of loyalties inside his government continues.