PKS mulls Tifatul as one of its presidential candidates

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) is considering party member Tifatul Sembiring as one of its presidential candidates.

The party has decided to announce several names of presidential candidates amid a 0.8-percent drop in the number of party constituents from the 7.8 percent recorded in the 2009 General Elections.

PKS central executive board deputy chairman Yudi Widiana Adia said Tuesday that the party, which claimed to be the largest Islamic political party in the country, was preparing a few names to become its presidential candidates, including Tifatul – who is also the communications and information technology minister, PKS patron Hidayat Nurwahid, PKS secretary general Anis Matta and PKS president Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq.

The names will be further discussed at the party’s national meeting in Medan in March.

“Every branch is allowed to propose a candidate. For example, the Medan branch is proposing Tifatul as a presidential candidate,” Yudi said in Bandung, West Java.

However, the head of the PKS central executive board, Nasir Jamil, said his party had yet to select its presidential candidate for the 2014 General Elections.

“We are still garnering opinions from party grassroots about who should be elected as our presidential candidate at the upcoming general elections. Thus, we are still waiting,” Nasir told The Jakarta Post.

The party aims to reach 20 percent of the vote in the 2014 General Elections. (swd/mtq)