Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian (left) gives an award to Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution (second left) on April 25, 2024, during a ceremony to commemorate regional autonomy, in the Surabaya town hall in East Java. - Antara
JAKARTA: The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said it would not let former member Bobby Nasution run uncontested in the upcoming gubernatorial election in North Sumatra, as the possibility grows of nominating former governor Edy Rahmayadi as a challenger to the party’s heavily favoured rival.
PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto said over the weekend that the party would nominate a candidate for the November race either on its own or by forging an alliance to ensure that “no election is left uncontested”.
Hasto made the comments after the PDI-P’s potential partner the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) joined last week a growing number of political parties declaring support for Bobby, the incumbent mayor of Medan who was kicked out of the PDI-P last year for declaring his support for presidential election winners Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Bobby’s brother-in-law.
The PDI-P had been in talks with the PKS, which had previously considered forging a partnership to nominate Edy instead before eventually giving its support to Bobby last week, less than a month before the three-day registration period for candidates opens at the General Elections Commission (KPU).
PDI-P spokesperson Chico Hakim said on Monday (Aug 5) that the possibility was growing that the party would nominate Edy, a retired military general who served as North Sumatra governor from 2018 to 2023.
“We are communicating intensively with Edy and he is so far the strongest possible candidate. There's also a chance that we might pair him with one of our own party members,” Chico told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
“But this is not definite yet pending a decision from our chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri.”
Despite being eligible to field its own candidate pair, the second-largest party in North Sumatra is still weighing whether to forge an alliance with any other political party.
“We believe that our political machine in North Sumatra is strong enough. So it won’t be an issue whether we register a pair alone or with other parties,” Chico said.
Edy is not a member of any political party, but he won the previous election in 2018 on the ticket of Gerindra and eight out of the 11 parties in the province, against PDI-P politician Syaiful Hidayat who ran on the ticket of PDI-P and the one remaining party in the province.
Edy earlier claimed that besides the PDI-P, the smaller Hanura party has been considering nominating him.
The PDI-P has also been considering nominating members Djarot and former North Tapanuli regent Nikson Nababan to challenge the heavily favoured rival. But they both failed to match Bobby’s 41.2 per cent electability rating in the July survey from Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI).
Edy came out second with 21.1 per cent. The electability ratings of Djarot and Nikson are only in the lower single digits, even below those of fellow PDI-P politician and former Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama who was in the distant third in the LSI survey, with 7.3 per cent.
Analyst Ujang Komarudin said it would be hard for the PDI-P to compete against Bobby and the growing number of political parties rallying behind him despite the PDI-P being the second largest political party in North Sumatra, even if it has Edy on its ticket.
“These political parties behind Bobby have the leverage [of portraying themselves] as pro-outgoing and incoming central governments,” Ujang said.
“Not to mention that North Sumatra is a strategic region, so political parties behind him will fight hard to win there.”
But even so, he urged the PDI-P to put up a good fight. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
