Australian Andrew Chan is among 20 death row prisoners scheduled for execution in Indonesia this year, an official says.

Chan’s name is on the list even though a letter rejecting his bid for presidential clemency has yet to be issued.

A spokesman for Indonesia’s attorney-general says the list assumes President Joko Widodo will stick by his pledge to deny mercy to drug smugglers.

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“That’s what the president said,” Tony Spontana told AAP.

“It’s clear and so we’re confident.”

Chan, who turned 31 on Monday, joins Myuran Sukumaran, 33, the other Bali Nine ringleader, on that list.

Sukumaran learned his last-ditch appeal had been formally rejected last week.

Chan and Sukumaran’s pleas for clemency were made more than two years ago, amid an unofficial moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Indonesia.

But hopes dimmed when Mr Joko declared he was against clemency for drug offenders late last year.

Five or six convicts are to be executed imminently, and the 20 others will follow.

The letter informing Sukumaran that his bid had failed said: “there’s not enough reason to give clemency to the convicted”.

However both men have made huge efforts in their rehabilitation, and help other inmates through art, cooking and mentoring programs.

In a message on his supporters’ Facebook page on Tuesday, Chan said he was humbled by the birthday wishes he received.

“I am standing strong – we are standing strong,” he wrote.

“We are trusting that the Indonesian president will see that the work we are doing and the work we want to do will make a positive difference in rehabilitating people here and in other places too.”

Chan dreams of teaching hospitality classes and Sukumaran has more plans for his art.

“We are, with your encouragement, able to keep on doing that even in the current situation,” Chan wrote.

A potential new appeal avenue hinges on an argument between Indonesia’s constitutional and supreme courts over how many times prisoners can seek judicial reviews.

The newly-appointed head of the constitutional court, Arief Hidayat, told the Koran Tempo newspaper the president should meet senior judges to sort out the wrangle.

He maintains his court’s decision allowing multiple reviews should be applied uniformly.

“When the constitutional court has made a decision, it can’t be interpreted any further,” he said.

The Sydney pair were sentenced to death over a plan to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin to Australia in 2005.

-AAP