Jokowi showered with reelection congratulations from G20 leaders

OSAKA, Jun 28, 2019, The Jakarta Post. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo received abundant congratulatory messages from state leaders during the opening ceremony of the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, on Friday – a day after the President was officially declared reelected, reported The Jakarta Post.

The Foreign Ministry’s director general for protocol and consular affairs, Andri Hadi, who accompanied the reelected President to the G20 Summit, said that almost all state leaders expressed their congratulations to Jokowi as soon as they met him at the event.

According to Andri, as stated in a press release, the congratulatory messages were conveyed on the sidelines of the summit, such as while crossing paths in the Leaders’ Area prior to the welcoming ceremony and the leaders’ photo session.

Andri said the state leaders included United States President Donald Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Spanish President Pedrosan Chez.

Jokowi also received similar greetings from International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Some hours prior to Jokowi’s departure for the G20 Summit on Thursday evening, he had his victory in the April 17 presidential election approved and declared legal by the Constitutional Court.

The ruling was made after the court rejected in its entirety a legal challenge by losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.

In its lawsuit, Prabowo’s legal team asked the court to declare Prabowo and his running mate Sandiaga Uno the winners of the election, claiming that according to their own tally, the former Army general had won the race with 52 percent of the vote against Jokowi’s 48 percent.

Meanwhile, previously, the General Elections Commission (KPU) had declared that Jokowi and Ma’ruf had won with 55.5 percent of the vote against Prabowo and Sandiaga’s 44.5 percent.