Jakarta. Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of two-term President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, made history on Sunday as he was sworn in as Indonesia's youngest vice president.

Gibran took the oath at the legislature building at the age of 37 years and 19 days of an office that previously had the minimum age requirement of 40. 

The regulation was amended by the Constitutional Court, which made exceptions for candidates who has served or is serving an elected office. Gibran, who was then serving as the mayor of Solo, became an eligible candidate due to this ruling issued just several weeks before he registered his candidacy last year.

He succeeds Ma’ruf Amin, who had previously set the record as the country’s oldest vice president, taking office at 76 years old in October 2019.

Gibran follows in the footsteps of Megawati Soekarnoputri, becoming the second child of a former president to rise to the vice presidency.

Before Gibran's historic inauguration, founding father Mohammad Hatta held the record as the youngest vice president among the 12 individuals to have served in the role since Indonesia’s independence in 1945. Hatta was 43 when he assumed office alongside President Sukarno on August 18, 1945.

Hatta also holds the record for the longest tenure as vice president, serving for 11 years and 105 days. In contrast, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie had the shortest stint, serving just 71 days during the turbulent final days of President Soeharto’s rule in 1998.

Megawati remains the only woman to have served as both vice president and president. She became president after the impeachment of Abdurrahman Wahid in 2001, making her the second vice president to ascend to the presidency by constitutional order, after Habibie.

Jusuf Kalla holds the distinction of being the only vice president to have served under two different presidents, during Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s term from 2004-2009 and Jokowi's first term from 2014-2019.

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