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s the electoral situation is apparently becoming increasingly volatile with only one pair of candidate hopefuls having surfaced, political parties and politicians are in high gear looking for coalition partners and running mates for the Jakarta gubernatorial election.

Thursday saw Lt. Gen. (ret.) Nono Sampono, the former commander of the Presidential Security Force, jump ship to join South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin as a pair backed by a coalition group led by the Golkar Party, which has seven seats at the City Council, to run in the election.

Golkar is now partners with the United Development Party (PPP), which controls seven seats, and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) with four seats.

Nono was previously one of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) gubernatorial hopefuls, also winning support from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).

PDI-P is the third-largest party in the Council with 11 seats, while Gerindra has a far more mediocre standing with only six.

Gerindra was quick to respond to Nono’s move, announcing Friday it intended to support incumbent Governor Fauzi Bowo.

Gerindra local branch chairman Muhammad Taufik said that they regretted Nono’s decision.

“We think it is unwise to support out-of-town candidates; we need those who understand Jakarta. We have many of them here,” Taufik said, referring to Alex’s candidacy.

Taufik said the move to support Fauzi was also based on signals by other nationalist parties’ apparently intent on supporting the incumbent.

“PDI-P has been approaching Fauzi. I know the National Mandate Party [PAN] has done the same as well,” he said.

To be able to name a candidate pair to run in the election, political parties or a coalition of political parties should have garnered more than 15 percent of the vote during the 2009 Legislative Election or have more than 15 seats in the Council.

The PDI-P has yet to decide who to endorse in the election, but has said that Surakarta Mayor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was among the strongest candidates.

The PDI-P cadre is among those praised by the public as an ideal candidate because he is considered to have successfully managed Surakarta and its people for the last five years.

Jokowi is also apparently on the move. He was reported to have contacted noted entrepreneur Sandiaga Uno, talking over the chances for them to pair up in the election.

“I have yet to meet him. I contacted him by telephone this morning,” he said in Surakarta, Central Java.

Jokowi said that the PDI-P had yet to decide upon his running mate, but communication with Sandiaga was approved by the party.

PAN chairman, Hatta Rajasa, said separately on Friday that the party had yet to make up its mind in the Jakarta election. “We have yet to decide our stance,” he said in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Amid the movement by mediocre parties, two heavyweight parties have yet to name their pairs.

The Democratic Party, the largest in the capital with 32 seats on the Council, is likely to support incumbent Fauzi, while 18-seat Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has named its local branch advisory board chairman, Triwisaksana, as a candidate. The PKS has hinted at the possibility of pairing Triwisaksana with Fauzi.

In 2007, the PKS admitted defeat in the capital’s first-ever direct gubernatorial election after going against a massive 19-party coalition. Coalition-backed Fauzi won with 57 percent of the 3.1 million votes cast while PKS candidate Adang Daradjatun gathered 43 percent.

The Jakarta General Elections Commission will accept the registration of political party-backed candidates between March 13 and 19, with the polling day set for July 11.

Khairul Saleh in Palembang and Kusumasari Ayuningtyas in Surakarta contributed to this article