Gibran Rakabuming Raka

In 2010, Gibran founded Chilli Pari, a catering business based in Surakarta. According to Gibran, he was inspired to set up the company after noticing the lack of a catering service for a conference centre owned by his father, but was opposed by Jokowi who intended for Gibran to continue his furniture business. The company grew and became focused on providing services for wedding parties.[3]

Gibran then started Markobar, a martabak chain, in 2015, and the chain had 29 locations in Indonesia by 2017.[4] Jokowi commented in 2017 that though he did not initially approve of Gibran's business, Gibran's company ended up being valued higher than his furniture company.[5] Gibran's reported wealth, filed in 2020 as a prerequisite to run for office, was reported at Rp 22 billion.[6]

In July 2019, Gibran was named a favourite candidate for the 2020 Surakarta mayoral election, his father's position before becoming Governor of Jakarta and later President of Indonesia, according to a survey by Slamet Riyadi University based there.[7] In September, Gibran registered as a member of PDI-P, the same political party as Jokowi, in order to run in the mayoral election.[8] The party officially endorsed Gibran as their mayoral candidate in July 2020, pairing him with city council speaker Teguh Prakosa.[9] All parties represented in the city council endorsed Gibran with the exception of the Prosperous Justice Party, potentially creating an uncontested election.[10] Ultimately, the candidacy of Bagyo Wahyono, a tailor by profession, was approved on 6 September 2020. Gibran's candidacy was also challenged by the activist Halim HD, who seeks votes for the blank box instead of the well-connected candidates.[11]