Edy Nasution (born 29 May 1961) is an Indonesian politician and former military officer. He briefly served as the governor of

Riau Riau (Jawi script, Jawi: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of the island of Sumatra, and extends from the eastern slopes of the Barisan Mountains to the Malacca Strait, including s ...

between November 2023 and February 2024, replacing the previous governor Syamsuar who had resigned. He was previously Syamsuar's deputy between 2019 and 2023. He served in the

Indonesian Army The Indonesian Army ( (TNI-AD), ) is the army, land branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It has an estimated strength of 300,400 active personnel. The history of the Indonesian Army has its roots in 1945 when the (TKR) "People's Se ...

for over 30 years prior to entering politics, and reached the rank of brigadier general.

Early life

Edy Nasution was born on 29 May 1961 in

Bengkalis Regency Bengkalis Regency is a regency of Indonesia in Riau Province. The regency was originally established in 1956 and then included most of the northern part of the province, but on 4 October 1999 it was divided up, with most of the territory being spl ...

, Riau, to Achmad Natar Nasution and Chairani Jadin. He enrolled at the

Indonesian Military Academy The Military Academy ( or ) is a service academy of the Indonesian Army, part of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Academy (). Founded on the early stages of the Indonesian Revolutionary War and located in the city of Magelang in Central J ...

, and graduated in 1984.

Career

Military

After graduating from the military academy, Nasution was assigned as a platoon, later company commander for operations in

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

. He was then reassigned to become a battalion commander at

Kostrad The Army Strategic Reserve Command (; abbreviated Kostrad) is a combined-arms formation of the Indonesian Army. Kostrad is a Corps level command which has up to 35,000 troops. It also supervises operational readiness among all commands and con ...

, and was posted on the border with

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

in 2000 to command border operations. Between 2007 and 2014, he was assigned abroad as a military attache. He was posted in

to command the local military district in 2017 as a brigadier general.

Politics

In January 2018, Nasution resigned from the armed forces in order to run in the 2018 Riau gubernatorial election. Becoming the running mate to Syamsuar, the pair defeated incumbent Arsyadjuliandi Rachman after winning 799,289 votes (38.2%). They were sworn in on 20 February 2019. On 5 October 2023, Syamsuar resigned from his post as governor in order to run for a seat in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

. Nasution became acting governor on 4 November 2023, and was sworn in as full governor on 27 November. His tenure as governor lasted until 20 February 2024, and S.F. Hariyanto was appointed in his place as acting governor. He is a member of the

Nasdem Party The NasDem Party () or the National Democratic Party () is a political party in Indonesia. It is partly funded by media baron Surya Paloh who founded the similarly named organization, National Democrats (). Despite this, and logo similarity, Nasi ...

, and has served as chairman of the party's Riau branch. After his brief gubernatorial tenure, Nasution attempted to secure support to run a full term in the 2024 gubernatorial election. He failed to do so, and instead ran for mayor of

Pekanbaru Pekanbaru is the capital city of the Indonesian province of Riau, and a major economic center on the eastern side of Sumatra, Sumatra Island with its name derived from the Malay language, Malay (Indonesian language, Indonesian) word for 'new mar ...

. He placed third in the five-way race with 56,159 votes.

References

{{Governors of Riau 1961 births People from Riau Living people Indonesian generals Indonesian National Military Academy alumni Nasdem Party politicians Governors of Riau