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Muhammad Bobby Afif Nasution (born 5 July 1991) is an Indonesian businessman and politician currently serving as Medan's mayor. He is the son-in-law of President Joko Widodo.
Early life and education
Nasution was born on 5 July 1991 in Medan, North Sumatra, as the last of three siblings in a Batak family. His father Erwin Nasution had been the president and director of the state-owned plantation company PTPN IV. Nasution went to elementary school in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, then middle and high school in Bandar Lampung. He studied agribusiness at university, obtaining his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Bogor Agricultural Institute.
Business career
In 2011, Nasution began working in the real estate industry, initially repairing and reselling homes, then building some homes and being involved in larger projects. By 2016, he joined the real estate Takke Group as a marketing director through the introduction of his father. Outside of real estate, Nasution had briefly worked as a manager for the football club Medan Jaya in 2014.
Political career
Mayor of Medan
Nasution submitted a bid to run as a mayoral candidate for his hometown of Medan in the 2020 Indonesian local elections through Jokowi's political party PDI-P. This caused multiple observers to suggest that a political dynasty was being established, which Nasution denied. In the ensuing months, he visited Gerindra chairman Prabowo Subianto and National Mandate Party chairman Zulkifli Hasan to gather support for his candidacy, in addition to registering with Golkar. He had officially become a cadre of PDI-P in March 2020. He was elected Mayor of Medan in December 2020, after winning 54.5% of the votes and defeating incumbent mayor Akhyar Nasution.
In November 2023, Nasution was expelled from PDI-P due to his endorsement of Prabowo Subianto in the 2024 Indonesian presidential election. In May 2024, Nasution ordered a shopping mall in Medan to be closed, citing unpaid municipal taxes since 2011 amounting to Rp 250 billion (USD 16 million). Also in May 2024, he joined the Gerindra Party.
Personal life
While studying for his master's degree in Bogor, Nasution met Kahiyang Ayu, daughter of incumbent president Joko Widodo (Jokowi). They dated for around a year after they met in 2015, and the two married in November 2017, through a ceremony in Jokowi's hometown of Surakarta which was attended by some 7,000 live guests and watched by millions of people.
