SEAToday.com, Jakarta-The General Election Commission (KPU) has appointed Ardianto Wijaya and Valerina Daniel as the moderators of the first presidential and vice presidential debate for the 2024 presidential election. This was announced by KPU RI Commissioner August Mellaz at the KPU RI office in Menteng on Saturday (12/9).

The two TVRI journalists will play an important role as mediators, intermediaries, guides, and controllers in the first debate to be held at the KPU office on Tuesday (12/12). 

August Mellaz said the selection of the two moderators was based on inputs and responses from the national campaign teams of each pair of candidates. This is in accordance with KPU Regulation No. 1621 of 2023 on Technical Guidelines for the Conduct of the General Election Campaign. The moderators must meet several qualifications, including having a professional and academic background, high integrity, neutrality, and the ability to appear in public.

Valerina Daniel has more than 20 years of experience as a journalist. Born in Jakarta on 28 November 1978, she has started her career as a news program presenter since 2000 at several television stations such as TPI, MetroTV, SCTV and BeritaSatu. Currently, she hosts the English program, TVRI World as Senior News Anchor.

She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the University of Indonesia in 1998-2003 and a Master's degree in Communication and Media from Monash University in 2009-2010.

Apart from being a journalist, Valerina is also active as an Environmental Ambassador as well as a Communications and Sustainability Advisor to the Government of Indonesia. She was also elected as None Jakarta in 1999, Runner-up of Puteri Indonesia 2005 and represented Indonesia in Miss ASEAN 2006.

Meanwhile, Ardianto was born in Banyuwangi, August 25, 1993. He worked as News Anchor since 2012 at TVRI West Java until 2016. Then, from 2017 until now he has been a News Anchor at TVRI National.

Ardianto graduated from D3 Broadcast Journalism at Padjadjaran University in 2011-2014 and earned a Bachelor's degree in Communication at Sebelas Maret University in 2014-2016.

The first presidental debate will be held on Tuesday (12/12) at General Election Commisison. The debate will take around 120 minutes, with 18 questions made by the panelists.