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Jokowi will not switch party, says PDI-P
The leadership of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has said it is convinced Jakarta Governor Joko âJokowiâ Widodo will not be tempted by an offer from a rival political party to nominate him for the 2014 presidential election
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he leadership of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has said it is convinced Jakarta Governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo will not be tempted by an offer from a rival political party to nominate him for the 2014 presidential election.
PDI-P central board member Maruarar Sirait said Jokowi would not jump ship even if he was not nominated by the party.
'Jokowi is a politician who values loyalty to his political party. So there's no way [he would join a rival party,' Maruarar told reporters on Monday.
Maruarar said Jokowi would obey any decision made by the PDI-P's leadership.
'The party is not yet certain about nominating him and also there's no guarantee he would be willing to be nominated,' Maruarar said.
Earlier last week, PDI-P chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri said she would soon make a decision on the party's presidential candidate for 2014.
Although Jokowi is the most popular politician in the country, the PDI-P has been reluctant to name him as its presidential candidate.
There has been talk within the party about pairing Jokowi with Megawati.
PDI-P deputy secretary-general Hasto Kristianto said a possible Megawati-Jokowi ticket had been warmly received by party members.
Hasto said Megawati was the perfect figure to lead the country given the complexity of its problems. He added she could also protect Jokowi from political attacks.
'Although more than 60 percent of the country's citizens support him, he could crumble if he has no protector,' Hasto said.
A public opinion poll conducted by the Jakarta-based think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), showed if a presidential election took place today, Jokowi would garner three times more votes than Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party chief patron Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto.
In the CSIS poll, Jokowi received the support of 34.7 percent of respondents against Prabowo's 10.7 percent.
The survey also revealed the PDI-P would benefit from nominating Jokowi as president.
In the survey, 29.9 percent of respondents would vote for the PDI-P if the party nominated Jokowi for the 2014 presidential election.
The Jakarta-based pollster Indikator found that Jokowi would receive 47.4 percent of the vote if an election was held today.
Trailing Jokowi was Prabowo with 15.8 percent and Aburizal Bakrie with 12.6 percent.
