Gerakan Rakyat Falls Short of February Target for Official Political Party Recognition

JAKARTA — Gerakan Rakyat had targeted achieving official government recognition as a political party in February, but the deadline has passed with the organisation still unable to complete its administrative structure at the district level, a requirement for government approval.

Gerakan Rakyat declared itself a political party at its First National Working Conference (Rakernas I) in Jakarta on 18 January 2026, after operating as a civil society organisation for one year. The group, which serves as a support base for Anies Baswedan, continues to work on establishing the organisational structures necessary for state recognition.

“We aimed to have this party registered at the Ministry of Law of the Republic of Indonesia by February,” said Gerakan Rakyat Chairman Sahrin Hamid at the party’s First National Working Conference in Jakarta on Sunday, 18 January 2026.

However, Sahrin acknowledged that registering Gerakan Rakyat as a political party at the Ministry of Law represents a substantial undertaking requiring compliance with numerous conditions. “First, to establish a political party, we must have leadership structures at the central level and 100 per cent at the provincial level. This means we must have structures in all 38 provinces,” he explained.

The group must also establish structures in at least 50 per cent of Indonesia’s approximately 7,000 sub-districts, requiring the creation of 3,069 sub-district branches across the country. Additional requirements include securing domicile certificates for each party office, establishing a 30 per cent female quota, and reporting to the National Unity and Political Agency (Kesbangpol).

“We then need to submit more than 3,000 documents to the Ministry of Law office. This is certainly a very demanding undertaking,” Sahrin stated.

He noted that the party’s current leadership structure remains limited and incomplete. “Regarding structure, we have only what we call territorial structures in place — we have the Central Leadership Council, Provincial Leadership Councils, District Leadership Councils, and Sub-District Leadership Councils,” Sahrin said. “We have not yet developed any other structures.”

According to Sahrin, only two structural elements have been prepared at the central level so far. “Currently, we only have the Central Leadership Council and the Party Court — these are the two structural elements we have proposed. These two were requested and required by law, so we have only established the Central Leadership Council and Party Court,” he explained.