Listening Closely to the Presidential Debates
General Election Commission (KPU) Chairman Arief Budiman (center) together with the content director of the National Campaign Team of Joko Widodo-Ma\'ruf Amin, Fiki Satari (far left); the planning director of the National Campaign Team of Joko Widodo-Ma\'ruf Amin, Ario Bimo (second left); the deputy chairman of the National Winning Board of Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno, Priyo Budi Santoso (second right); and the witness director of the National Winning Board of Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno, Prasetyo Hadi (far right), issue a press statement after holding a meeting on the preparation of debates of the presidential and vice-presidential candidate pairs at the KPU building, Jakarta, on Dec. 28, 2018. The KPU together with the campaign teams of the presidential and vice-presidential candidate pairs agreed that the moderator who would guide the first debate of the 2019 presidential election would be Ira Koesno and Imam Priyono.
The opening presidential debate on Thursday, Jan. 17, is a cause célèbre that has drawn great public attention.
The debate between Joko Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin and Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno is certain to receive widespread coverage and will be highly demonstrative, as it concerns the election of the national leadership for the next five years.