Septinus Lobat (born 14 March 1970) is an Indonesian politician and bureaucrat who is the mayor of

Sorong Sorong is the largest city and the capital of the Indonesian province of Southwest Papua. The city is located on the western tip of the island of New Guinea with its only land borders being with Sorong Regency. It is the gateway to Indonesia ...

Southwest Papua Southwest Papua (; ) is the 38th provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia to be created, and was split off from West Papua (province), West Papua on 8 December 2022. Despite being named "southwest", this is actually a misnomer and this prov ...

, serving since February 2025. He had previously served as the city's acting mayor between 2023 and 2024, and was previously part of the province's civil service.

Early life

Septinus Lobat was born in the village of Indiwi, within present-day Sorong Regency, on 14 March 1970. He is of

Moi Moi or MOI may refer to: People * Moi (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Moisés Delgado (born 1994), Spanish footballer commonly known as simply Moi * Moisés Rodríguez (born 1997), Spanish footballer commonly known as ...

origin. He studied at an elementary school in Buk, middle school in Klamono District of Sorong, and in 1986 he went to

Manokwari Manokwari is a coastal town and the capital city, capital of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of West Papua (province), West Papua. It is one of only seven provincial capitals of Indonesia without a city status in Indonesia, city ...

for high school. In 1995, Lobat obtained a bachelor's in law from Manokwari's Law Academy. He would later receive a master's degree in

public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

from

Gadjah Mada University Gadjah Mada University (; , abbreviated as UGM) is a public research university located in Sleman, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Officially founded on 19 December 1949, Gadjah Mada University is one of the oldest and largest institut ...

in 2009.

Career

Lobat began to work at Sorong Regency's civil service, in 2005 having become a section head within the regency's fishery service. He continued to rise up the ranks, serving as secretary of the regency's elections commission and municipal police during his service. By 2022, he was head of Sorong Regency's public housing department. That year, he was moved to the provincial government of

as assistant for government affairs. On 24 August 2023, Lobat was appointed as acting mayor of

city to replace another acting mayor George Yarangga. However, he decided to resign his position on 8 August 2024 in order to run in the city's mayoral election in November 2024, and he also resigned from his civil servant position. Lobat received the endorsement of the

National Mandate Party The National Mandate Party (), frequently abbreviated to PAN, is a non-sectarian, religion-basedAl-Hamdi, Ridho (2017). ''Moving towards a Normalised Path: Political Islam in Contemporary Indonesia''. Jurnal Studi Pemerintahan (Journal of Governme ...

(PAN),

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 ...

PSI Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ or ψ), the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviat ...

, and Labour, with Anshar Karim as his running mate. In the ensuing four-way race, Lobat and Karim won 50,255 votes (40.9%), and after an unsuccessful lawsuit by a competitor to the

Constitutional Court of Indonesia The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia () is one of the apex courts in Indonesia along with the Indonesian Supreme Court. Its primary role is reviewing the constitutionality of Acts (''undang-undang''). It also has other functi ...

, they were officially declared winners of the election on 7 February 2025. They were sworn in as mayor and vice-mayor on 20 February 2025 along with other regional leaders elected in 2024. As mayor, Lobat announced that tuition, registration fees, book fees, and uniforms for the city's 72 public schools would be waived. The city's government also provided "selective" financial aid for private school students.

Personal life

Lobat is married to Jemima Elisabeth Lobat, and the couple has four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lobat, Septinus 1970 births Living people People from Southwest Papua Indonesian civil servants Mayors of places in Indonesia Gadjah Mada University alumni