People lounge on Aug 6, 2023 on the grassy lawn surrounding the National Monument (Monas) at Medan Merdeka Square in Jakarta. - AFP
JAKARTA: The capital's gubernatorial race is shaping up to be a battle between two popular former governors, Anies Baswedan of Jakarta and Ridwan Kamil of West Java, as political parties start throwing their weight behind either of the two prospective candidates.
Anies and Ridwan both appeared one step closer to winning the backing of major parties in their bid for Jakarta governor, a prominent regional leadership post that is still widely seen as a springboard to the presidency, even though the city is slated to lose its status as the national capital later this year.
United States-educated Anies, who served as Jakarta governor in 2017-2022, is unaffiliated with any political party, while Ridwan joined the Golkar Party the same year he ended his term as West Java governor from 2018 to 2023.
In February, Anies campaigned for the presidency on a platform of change, but lost to eventual winner Prabowo Subianto, who campaigned on a platform of continuity to carry on with the policy programs of outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
News broke this week that Anies was among 10 prospective candidates that the local branch of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) had proposed to chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, who has the final say on hundreds of presumptive PDI-P nominees in the November regional head elections.
“We had actually proposed our list of potential names, which includes Anies, to [Megawati] a long time ago, even before the party’s national meeting [in May],” PDI-P Jakarta secretary Pantas Nainggolan said on Tuesday (June 11).
Other prospective nominees on the PDI-P’s list include former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Andika Perkasa and former Jakarta governor Basuki Thahaja Purnama (BTP), still widely known by his former moniker “Ahok”, who ran against Anies in the highly divisive 2017 Jakarta election.
The Jakarta branch of the National Awakening Party (PKB) followed suit on Wednesday, announcing that it had proposed Anies as its sole nominee for the city’s governorship to its central executive board.
At the same time, PKB Jakarta made a surprise announcement that it was open to the possibility of pairing Anies with 29-year-old Kaesang Pangarep, Jokowi’s younger son who chairs the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), who Anies had criticized during campaigning for interfering with the presidential election.
Anies’ nomination and his possible pairing with Kaesang must be approved by the PKB central board, which has yet to begin formal discussions about which candidates to support in the Jakarta election.
“The proposal from the Jakarta branch will be subject to a more thorough review by the central executive board,” PKB central board executive Daniel Johan told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Anies’ potential candidacy has put Ridwan in the spotlight as a possible contender, and parties aligned with Jokowi and president-elect Prabowo have started expressing their support for the latter, popularly known as “Kang Emil”.
Ridwan is seen as a rising star in national politics thanks to his successful stints as West Java governor and Bandung mayor.
He was once tipped as a strong vice presidential candidate for the 2024 general election, but he failed to clinch a nomination from any party.
"Regarding the Jakarta race, the Gerindra Party and several parties in [Prabowo’s coalition] are discussing several potential candidates, including Pak [Mr.] Ridwan,” Gerindra senior politician Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said on Tuesday.
Responding to the growing number of parties lining up behind Anies, Gerindra lawmaker Habiburokhman expressed his optimism that Ridwan could defeat Anies, arguing that Jakarta needed a new leader.
"I am sure that [Jakarta voters] want a new figure to lead the city,” Habiburokhman said, adding that the party’s past experience in supporting new faces in Jakarta’s leadership race, such as Jokowi-Ahok in 2012 and Anies-Sandiaga Uno in 2017, had proved a winning strategy.
"I think that [Ridwan] could be very competitive [in a race against] Anies,” he continued.
“Ridwan is considered a fresh face, so it will just be a matter of [who will] be his running mate. [We need] someone who will strengthen his chances of winning the election, instead of burdening him.”
Support for Ridwan’s potential Jakarta bid also came from the National Mandate Party (PAN), which considered joining forces with Gerindra in nominating a candidate pair.
“Insyaallah [God willing], Ridwan Kamil will run in Jakarta,” PAN chairman Zulkifli Hasan said last week, when asked if his party might nominate the same gubernatorial candidate as Gerindra.
But Ridwan’s candidacy also hinges on Golkar, which is currently discussing whether to nominate him as its gubernatorial pick for Jakarta or West Java.
The party previously indicated that it preferred to nominate Ridwan as its candidate in West Java, after internal surveys showed his popularity stood above 50 percent in the country’s most populous province.
Golkar is also considering two other names for its Jakarta gubernatorial ticket: Tangerang regent Ahmed Zaki Iskandar, whose second term ended late last year, and businessman Erwin Aksa, the nephew of former vice president Jusuf Kalla who was deputy manager of the Prabowo campaign.
No political party is eligible to nominate a candidate pair on its own, given their results in the February election for the Jakarta Legislative Council (DPRD).
The prevailing law requires a party or a group of parties to have won at least 20 percent of the seats in the local DPRD to be eligible to nominate a candidate in the regional head elections. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
