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Competitive three-horse race takes shape as Prabowo-Gibran register
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Poll essentials: Police officers check knocked-down pooling booths on October 24, 2023 as they inspect the storehouse of the local General Elections Commission (KPU) in Boyolali, Central Java. Boyolali received 13,706 pooling booths for next year’s elections. (Antara/Aloysius Jarot Nugroho)
The addition of Gerindra Party chair Prabowo Subianto and running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka as the third presidential pairing in next February’s election has rounded up what analysts expect to be a highly contested three-horse race that will almost certainly necessitate a runoff.
Prabowo and Gibran registered with the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Wednesday, the closing day of the weeklong registration period and against a backdrop of political drama in the past week and the controversial court ruling that removed the legal barrier for Gibran, the eldest son of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, to run in the race.
They will compete for Indonesia’s top office next year against Ganjar Pranowo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and running mate Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD, as well as former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and running mate National Awakening Party (PKB) chair Muhaimin Iskandar. Both pairs registered last week.
Recent opinion polls have shown that Prabowo and Gibran are the pair to beat in the February election, although the Ganjar-Mahfud pair remain in a competitive second, with the Anies-Muhaimin pair languishing in third.
An Indonesia Survey Institute (LSI) survey released on Sunday found that Prabowo-Gibran had an electability of 35.9 percent, followed by Ganjar-Mahfud at 26.1 percent, while Anies-Muhaimin only has an electability of 19.6 percent.
The Prabowo-Gibran pair also came out on top in a survey released by pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia last week, with an electability of 37.5 percent. Ganjar-Mahfud was in second at 32.2 percent, while Anies-Muhaimin was, once again, in third on 22.7 percent.
Both the Prabowo-Gibran and Ganjar-Mahfud pairings have positioned themselves as successors of President Jokowi, a PDI-P member who remains a highly popular president despite having less than a year left in office.
