Ahok forbids City Hall visitors from taking photos of him with the ‘dua jari’ sign

Yesterday evening, each of the three pairs of candidates registered for next year’s Jakarta gubernatorial election attended a ceremony in which they went into a draw to see which numbers they would be listed next to on the voting ballots. The ticket of Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono and Sylviana Murni drew number one, while the incumbent pair of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and Vice Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat were assigned number two and Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno received three.

To be honest we’re not sure why so much importance is placed on the number assigned to candidates (it always gets tons of media coverage), but it likely has something to do with how the numbers are often incorporated into each campaigns slogans. 

Certainly some people thought it was fortuitous that Ahok-Djarot pulled #2, as that is the same number that President Joko Widodo had in the Presidential election leading the salam dua jari (two finger sign) to become emblematic of his winning campaign.

It is not yet clear if Ahok will also adopt the two finger salute as one of his campaign symbols, but he did not want anybody using it around him today.

When he was doing his usual morning meeting with citizens at City Hall today, several people asked to take pictures with Ahok and were ready to throw up the two finger sign but the governor asked them not to.

“Not yet allowed, pak,” Ahok told one visitor when he made the v-sign, as quoted by Tempo

The reason Ahok was forced to be a buzzkill is because he was worried that if people were seen taking photos of him using the two finger sign already, it could be perceived as campaigning, and the official campaign season does not start until October 28.

Ahok has already been forced to take a four-month leave from his role as governor to avoid violating campaign law, so that might be a reason why he is especially sensitive to these rules.

The campaign season runs until February 11, 2017.



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