The Running Mates Prabowo Is Considering for 2029

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Budi Arie Setiadi’s phone was pinging incessantly on Tuesday, August 25, 2026. The Chair of Projo—the group that supports Joko Widodo—received at least 300 messages after a video in which he discussed the possibility of an early 2029 General Election went viral on social media. The recording was made during a meeting between dozens of volunteers and Jokowi at Amanaia Restaurant in Setiabudi, South Jakarta, the previous day, Monday, August 24.

Budi said several of Jokowi’s supporters had recorded the meeting with the seventh President. But a Projo official sitting across from Budi recorded the proceedings and shared the footage in a Projo WhatsApp group. The content quickly spread to various chat groups, triggering a controversy.

According to Budi, some of the hundreds of messages sent to his phone concerned a conversation with Jokowi. The former Mayor of Solo, Central Java, asked Budi to clarify what he had meant by his remarks at Amanaia Restaurant and to apologize to the public. “We discussed that my comment about the 2029 election was a personal opinion and had nothing to do with Pak Jokowi,” Budi said in South Jakarta on Tuesday, September 15, 2026.

Budi said a senior state official at the Presidential Palace also sent him a message. The official had not contacted Budi since President Prabowo Subianto removed him as Cooperatives Minister.