JAKARTA: As Indonesia gears up for next week’s polls, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin was in Jeddah on Wednesday to oversee voting preparations in Saudi Arabia — home to one of the largest contingents of the Indonesian diaspora worldwide.
Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians work and live in the Kingdom, making it the second-largest host of Indonesian nationals abroad, just after Malaysia.
On Wednesday, Amin visited the Indonesian Consulate in Jeddah as part of his trip to the Middle East and ahead of the Indonesian elections on Feb. 14, when about 205 million registered voters from the world’s third-largest democracy will cast their ballots.
“The vice president wanted to do a short trip to Saudi Arabia for Umrah and also for a working visit to the Indonesian Consulate in Jeddah to oversee their preparations ahead of the elections,” Masduki Baidlowi, spokesperson to the vice president, told Arab News.
“This is important, because Saudi Arabia is the second-largest home of Indonesians abroad.”
Amin was also in the UAE earlier this week to attend a ceremony for the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity, which this year recognized Indonesia’s top Islamic organizations Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah.
He visited the Indonesian Embassy in Abu Dhabi during that trip, where he called for a peaceful election.
“This election should be a peaceful election, a happy election,” Amin said. “We may have different choices, but let this not divide, separate our nation.”
In the world’s biggest single-day election, Indonesians will choose the country’s new president and vice president, as well as executive and legislative representatives at the national, provincial and regency level.
Indonesians abroad are set to vote earlier, with the election scheduled on Feb. 9 in Riyadh and Feb. 10 in Jeddah and Abu Dhabi.
