Munafri Arifuddin (born 20 September 1975) is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the mayor of

Makassar Makassar ( ), formerly Ujung Pandang ( ), is the capital of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, ...

, serving since February 2025. He is also the former CEO of the football club PSM Makassar and the current Director of PT Liga Indonesia Baru. Son-in-law of Bosowa Corporation founder Aksa Mahmud and relative of

Jusuf Kalla Muhammad Jusuf Kalla (; born 15 May 1942), commonly referred to by his initials JK, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who served as the 10th and 12th vice president of Indonesia, the only vice president in Indonesian history to serve tw ...

, he worked at Bosowa Group before joining the football club. In 2018, he ran for the mayoral election in

as a single candidate after his opponent was disqualified, but lost to an empty ballot. After losing the repeat election in 2020, he would be elected as mayor in the 2024 mayoral election.

Background and family

Munafri was born in Majene,

South Sulawesi South Sulawesi () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province in the South Peninsula, Sulawesi, southern peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital and largest ci ...

(today part of

West Sulawesi West Sulawesi (), covering a land area of 17,152.99 km2 with its capital at Mamuju, is a province of Indonesia on the western side of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) island, consisting 6 regencies ('' kabupaten''), namely Polewali Mandar, Ma ...

) on 20 September 1975. His father-in law, Aksa Mahmud, is the founder of the Bosowa Corporation and one of the richest men in Indonesia, in addition to being the brother-in-law of

, the 10th and 12th Vice President of Indonesia. Munafri's wife Melinda Aksa Mahmud is the CEO of Bosowa Education; the couple have four children. Munafri studied for primary, secondary and tertiary school all in Makassar, and earns his bachelor's degree in law from Hasanuddin University in 1999.

Career

Munafri worked for his father-in-law for some time, including as CEO for several of the companies within the group. He also served as chairman of South Sulawesi's young entrepreneurs association between 2007 and 2010.

PSM Makassar

In 2016, shareholders of PSM Makassar elected Munafri as the new CEO for the club, replacing Rully Habibie. Before, Munafri had worked on clubs such as Hasanuddin FC and Perseka Bosowa. At that time, he was working at Corporate Relations in Bosowa. After becoming the last-ranked team in the league following the first four matches in his first season, Munafri fired the club manager Luciano Leandro and brought in Robert Alberts. In addition, nine foreign players were also removed. PSM finished sixth that season.

Elections

During the 2018 Indonesian local elections, Munafri registered to run as mayor of

, the capital and largest city of South Sulawesi. Being a member of

Golkar The Party of Functional Groups (), often known by its abbreviation Golkar, is a Centre politics, centre to Centre-right politics, centre-right big tent secular nationalist political parties in Indonesia, political party in Indonesia. Founded in ...

, he was supported by 10 political parties representing 43 of the 50 seats in Makassar's city council. His opponent was incumbent mayor Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto. However, Pomanto was disqualified by the city's

electoral commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

, citing procedural flaws. This resulted in Munafri running as a single candidate, but he was still required to win over half of the votes to be elected as a

none of the above "None of the above" (NOTA), or none for short, also known as "against all" or a "scratch" vote, is a ballot option in some jurisdictions or organizations, designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of the candidates in a voting system ...

option was available. In the election itself, Munafri secured 264,245 votes, while 300,795 voted for the empty ballot. While Munafri brought the case to the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

, the court denied his case and reiterated the electoral commission's ruling, forcing a repeat election to be held in 2020 and an appointee to act as mayor. Munafri's loss marked the first ever victory for the

option in elections for Indonesian regional leaders. In his second run in 2020, Arifuddin again faced Pomanto alongside two other tickets and lost, winning 34.7% of votes to Pomanto's 41.3%. Arifuddin successfully ran for a seat in the South Sulawesi Regional House of Representatives in the 2024 election, winning 29,802 votes.

Continued politics

He became the chairman of Golkar's Makassar branch in March 2021. In November 2021, he was appointed

honorary consul A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

in Makassar.

References

{{Reflist Living people 1975 births 21st-century mayors of places in Indonesia PSM Makassar Golkar politicians Hasanuddin University alumni People from Majene Honorary consuls Mayors of Makassar