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everal prominent figures have decided to join the campaign teams of the two contenders in the upcoming presidential race, with some being offered senior positions in the next administration.

Presidential hopeful Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo said on Wednesday that his camp had attracted support from several former participants of the Democratic Party'€™s presidential convention.

'€œI can'€™t reveal their names just yet. Be patient and wait and see,'€ he said after attending a national coordinating meeting on inflation held at the Grand Sahid Jaya Hotel in Jakarta.

The ruling Democratic Party has decided to sit out the election after failing to form a coalition with other parties to nominate one of the 11 participants of its presidential convention. They included former Army chief of staff Gen. (ret) Pramono Edhie Wibowo, former trade minister Gita Wirjawan, Paramadina University rector Anies Baswedan, former Indonesian ambassador to the United States Dino Patti Djalal and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan.

Anies, a well-respected academic, has been touted as a perfect fit to become education minister, while Dino, a veteran diplomat and son of another prominent diplomat, Hasan Djalal, is believed to be lined up for the post of foreign minister.

Neither Anies nor Dino were available for comment on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday night, Jokowi had yet to announce the head of his campaign team, though many predict that he will offer the job to Golkar Party politician Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, who has resigned from his post as deputy chairman of Golkar'€™s advisory council to join Jokowi'€™s campaign team.

'€œPak Luhut had been helping us organize our team and volunteers long before our declaration,'€ said Jokowi, who will run in the election with former Golkar chairman and former vice president Jusuf Kalla.

The Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa pair has named former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD head of its campaign team. He will work together with former Army chief of staff George Toisutta, who has been appointed as Mahfud'€™s deputy.

Speaking to tempo.co on Tuesday night, Mahfud confirmed that he had been offered a position beyond the ministerial level.

He said it was only natural for a political alliance to end up in horse trading. '€œThis is politics. There is no coalition without transactions,'€ he said as quoted by tempo.co.

Prabowo and Hatta have also recruited several celebrities, including musician Ahmad Dhani, to join their campaign team. Dhani previously campaigned for the National Awakening Party (PKB) in the legislative election and claimed to have been offered the tourism minister post.

Like dangdut singer Rhoma Irama, Dhani also ditched the PKB after the party threw its support behind Jokowi and Kalla.

Political analyst Hanta Yudha of the Pol-Tracking Institute said the involvement of the Democratic Party'€™s presidential convention participants in Jokowi'€™s campaign would not have much impact.

'€œIf it is true that some of those figures plan to join the Jokowi-Kalla camp, it will certainly be beneficial, but it is not overly significant. Among the participants, only Dahlan Iskan has a fairly respectable popularity rating. Most of the others, however, are not strong enough as political figures,'€ he told The Jakarta Post.

He also said that he doubted whether Mahfud would be able to persuade Muslim voters to back Prabowo.

Jokowi and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) have repeatedly claimed that they will not engage in transactional politics in forming alliances with other parties and prominent figures.

The Gerindra Party, which gained the support of five political parties for Prabowo'€™s candidacy, has openly expressed its intention to offer strategic posts to its coalition partners.