I Gusti Ngurah Jaya Negara (born 4 July 1966) is an Indonesian politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle who is the current mayor of Denpasar, Bali, having served since 2021. Before becoming mayor, he had been the city's vice mayor under Ida Bagus Rai Mantra for two terms, from 2010 to 2015 and 2016–2021, and before that he was elected twice to the city's legislature.
Early life
I Gusti Ngurah Jaya Negara was born on 4 July 1966 in Puri Penatih district of Denpasar to I Gusti Ngurah Gde Sutedja and Ni Jero Samiata.[1][2] His father was a teacher, and his mother was a housewife. He stated that during his childhood, he helped his parents earn money by selling ice pops after school and helping during harvests. His father lost his job as a teacher in 1971 due to his affiliation to the Indonesian National Party, and became an auto rickshaw driver. Jaya Negara graduated from Denpasar's State High School No. 1 in 1985, and in 1991 he graduated with a bachelors in economics from the National Education University [id] in Denpasar. During his studies, his father involved him in the party activities of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).[2]
After receiving his degree, Jaya Negara began to work at the private Utama Bank [id] in 1991. The bank failed due to the Asian financial crisis and Jaya Negara was laid off in 1998.[1] Afterwards, he became more active in politics.[1] In the 1999 legislative election shortly after, he was elected as a member of the Denpasar City Regional House of Representatives as a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P; a continuation of PDI).[2] He was reelected for a second term in 2004, and became chairman of one of the House's commissions.[3] In 2010, he ran as the vice-mayoral candidate of Ida Bagus Rai Mantra in Denpasar's mayoral election, and the pair won with 72.5% of the votes.[4] They were sworn into office on 11 August 2010.[5] They were reelected in 2015, and were sworn in to their second term on 17 February 2016.[6]
In the 2020 mayoral election, Jaya Negara ran to become the mayor of Denpasar and was elected with 184,655 votes (81.2%) with I Kadek Agus Arya Wibawa as his vice-mayoral candidate.[7] They were sworn in on 26 February 2021.[8] His early tenure as mayor focused on vaccination and economic aid programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to renovations to facilities at Sanur Beach.[9]
