Indonesia’s Vice-President, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, submitted his resignation to parliament on Thursday, setting in motion the search for a replacement as the government faces mounting instability.
Gibran had come under growing pressure to step down following a Supreme Court ruling that a high-school document used during his 2024 election campaign was invalid.
His departure also coincides with a weakening political alliance between his father, former president Joko Widodo, and the sitting president, Prabowo Subianto.
According to parliamentary Speaker Ahmad Muzani, lawmakers now have 60 days to fill the vacant vice presidency.
An aide told the BBC earlier that Gibran had handed his resignation letter directly to Prabowo on Wednesday.
Gibran has faced prolonged scrutiny over whether his high-school qualifications met the legal requirements to hold office.
Having studied in Singapore and Australia, he relied on an Indonesian equivalence certificate to establish his educational credentials.
Indonesian law requires vice-presidents to have completed senior secondary school or an equivalent qualification, but the Supreme Court found no evidence that Gibran had graduated.
“No evidence was found to show Gibran had a foreign diploma or certificate that could serve as the basis for equivalency with a senior high school or equivalent qualification,” the court said.
The ruling echoed a Constitutional Court decision reached earlier in October that came to the same conclusion.
The Supreme Court’s decision prompted more than 100 lawmakers to back a parliamentary initiative that could have cleared the way for impeachment proceedings against Gibran.
Gibran had previously maintained that his university education was sufficient proof that he had completed senior high school.
On Tuesday, he requested the opportunity to challenge the ruling and demonstrate the legitimacy of his educational qualifications, State Secretariat’s Prasetyo Hadi said.
Gibran’s selection as Prabowo’s running mate in the 2024 election was part of an alliance forged between his father, outgoing president Joko Widodo—known as Jokowi—and Prabowo, his former political adversary.
Gibran was 36 at the time and became eligible to run only after a contentious Constitutional Court ruling exempted him from the minimum age requirement of 40.
Tensions between Jokowi and Prabowo, however, appear to have intensified.
Since assuming the presidency, Prabowo has shown little enthusiasm for advancing Jokowi’s signature project, the construction of Nusantara, the country’s new capital. Instead, he has directed much of the state’s resources toward his own flagship initiative to provide free school meals nationwide.
Over the past year, a series of personnel reshuffles has seen Prabowo reassign numerous Jokowi loyalists to new positions, among them long-serving finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
Last week, authorities arrested several senior officials, including presidential chief of staff Listyo Sigit Prabowo—no relation to the president—on suspicion of wiretapping him.
Prabowo dismissed Listyo a day later, a move widely interpreted as another sign of a fracturing alliance; Listyo, a former national police chief, is regarded as a longtime Jokowi ally.
Loyalties within the government appear to be shifting as well. On Monday, three members of Prabowo’s cabinet collectively resigned from the party led by Kaesang Pangarep, Jokowi’s youngest son, saying they wished to concentrate on their duties within the administration.
Yet neither man has publicly acknowledged a rift. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Jokowi said he continued to back Prabowo’s leadership.
Jokowi also characterized Gibran’s resignation as part of the “political dynamics” and said he had reminded his son that “the position was temporary.”
The developments come at an especially turbulent moment for Prabowo’s presidency. The free school meals programme is grappling with funding shortfalls, parts of Indonesia have recently confronted the country’s worst wildfires in a decade, and the national stock market is reeling amid allegations of widespread manipulation.
Across the country, students and activists have taken to the streets to protest the government’s handling of a range of issues, from the environmental crisis to corruption.