T

he Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has officially nominated the pairing of member of the House of Representatives Rieke Diyah Pitaloka and antigraft activist Teten Masduki to compete in the 2013 West Java gubernatorial election.

House member and interim chairman of the PDI-P West Java chairman TB Hasanuddin said party chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri had endorsed the pair to run in the election.

Hasanuddin said that the PDI-P was expected to make an official announcement on the candidacy soon.

He also said that the PDI-P would not form a coalition with other political parties for the gubernatorial election.

“Our doctrine is that we will build a coalition with the people and other components in the society,” he said as quoted by Antara news wire.

Hasanuddin was also optimistic that the PDI-P could repeat the success it had with the popular Surakarta mayor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. Jokowi was recently elected as the Jakarta governor.

“Rieke-Teten ticket will be our Jokowi part two,” he said.

Later in the afternoon during a press conference to announce the candidacy, the PDI-P secretary-general Tjahjo Kumolo said that the party central board had instructed all party officials and members in West Java to work hard for the election of the Rieke-Teten ticket.

“All members of the party must work to organize the people to elect their new leaders,” Tjahjo said.

Responding to the PDI-P central board’s decision to name him as a candidate for the deputy governor position, Teten said that what matters in the election is the commitment to develop West Java.

Teten also said that he would also play a more active role, especially in efforts to ensure the creation of clean and excellent governance across the country’s largest province.

“We have agreed to have a [fair] division of labor so that I will not serve as a spare tire. I will take new initiatives to create a clean government,” said Teten, who is a native of Garut, West Java.

Teten also said that he had agreed to resign from his position as secretary-general of the Transparency International Indonesia (TII), with immediate effect.

This announcement is a blow to the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, who had said in October, it would nominate Teten as its candidate in the West Java gubernatorial election.

Gerindra had said it would form a coalition to nominate Teten, as it lacked enough seats in the West Java Legislative Council (DPRD) to register Teten as a candidate on its own.