Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) will choose the country's next vice president on 2 December, its speaker said on Friday, after the resignation of Gibran Rakabuming Raka this week.

Speaker Ahmad Muzani said the assembly, which is tasked by law with appointing a new vice president, would send a letter to President Prabowo Subianto asking him to submit two names for the post. A team of 36 lawmakers has been formed to verify the credentials of the candidates, Muzani said. It was not immediately clear which names Mr Prabowo would put forward.

Mr Gibran, 39, submitted his resignation to the assembly on Thursday, 12 November, and the assembly has declared the vice-presidential seat vacant. Under Indonesia's constitution, the vacancy must be filled within 60 days.

Why Gibran resigned

Mr Gibran's departure followed a month of growing political pressure after Indonesia's top courts ruled that his education credentials did not meet the requirements to hold the office. Election law requires vice-presidential candidates to have completed senior high school or an equivalent level of education.

The Constitutional Court found last month that there was no convincing evidence that Mr Gibran held a foreign diploma or certificate proving he had completed an education equivalent to senior high school. The Supreme Court then ruled that a high-school document used during his 2024 election campaign was invalid, finding no evidence of a foreign diploma or certificate that could serve as the basis for an equivalence qualification.

Mr Gibran studied in Singapore and Australia and had relied on an Indonesian equivalence certificate to demonstrate that his schooling met the legal requirement. He had previously argued that going on to university education was sufficient proof that he had completed senior high school.

On Thursday, Mr Gibran said his resignation was a personal decision and unrelated to questions about his education credentials. An aide had earlier told the BBC that his resignation letter was submitted directly to Mr Prabowo on Wednesday.

A fraying alliance

Mr Gibran was elected alongside Mr Prabowo in the 2024 election. He is the eldest son of former President Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, and his selection as Mr Prabowo's running mate was part of a political bargain that helped Mr Prabowo draw on Mr Jokowi's popularity.

Analysts say the resignation could widen the gulf between Mr Prabowo and Mr Jokowi, and could stoke further political turbulence. Critics had accused Mr Jokowi of meddling in the process by influencing a court decision in 2023 that changed the election rules and enabled Mr Gibran, then aged 36, to stand despite being below the minimum age.

On Thursday, however, both Mr Jokowi and Mr Gibran struck a conciliatory tone and said they would continue to support Mr Prabowo. In a video address to volunteers shown by news channel Kompas TV, Mr Gibran said he would not be in opposition even as an outsider to the administration. "I only have one message: Please, inside or outside government, we still have to support the president," he said, according to Reuters.

What happens next

The turbulence comes amid other strains in Indonesian politics. Last week police revealed an inquiry into suspected illegal wiretapping by four senior police officials, including former police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo, who is widely seen as a Jokowi loyalist. Police said on Thursday they had enough initial evidence to pursue treason charges against the four suspects for wiretapping Mr Prabowo, other politicians, activists and journalists.

Mr Jokowi defeated Mr Prabowo in two presidential elections, in 2014 and 2019. During Mr Jokowi's second term, he made Mr Prabowo his defence minister and tacitly supported his 2024 presidential run. Whoever the assembly chooses on 2 December will serve out the remainder of the vice-presidential term alongside Mr Prabowo.