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Incumbent candidates hard to compete with: Rivals
The political rivals of Surabaya Mayor Tri âRismaâ Rismaharini (who is planning to run in the upcoming election with her deputy Whisnu Sakti Buana) say it is quite difficult to challenge the incumbent candidates due to their likelihood of being elected
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he political rivals of Surabaya Mayor Tri 'Risma' Rismaharini (who is planning to run in the upcoming election with her deputy Whisnu Sakti Buana) say it is quite difficult to challenge the incumbent candidates due to their likelihood of being elected.
Gerindra Party branch executive board chief Sutadi said Risma and Whisnu's high popularity had led other candidates to drop their nomination, delaying the simultaneous regional election in Surabaya, which was initially scheduled for Dec. 9.
'We did not nominate any Surabaya mayor candidate because the Risma-Whisnu candidate pair is likely to be elected and is popular, which makes them quite difficult to compete with,' said Sutadi, who is one of the Majapahit Coalition members, on Tuesday.
Supporters of the Risma-Whisnu ticket had touted former journalist Dhimam Abror Djuraid as 'the savior' of the incumbent candidate, which was nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), until the latter's running mate, Haries Poerwoko, decided to withdraw from his candidacy. As a result, the Surabaya mayor election has to be delayed until 2017.
'I withdrew from my candidacy because I have been considered only a puppet candidate. My mom phoned me and she asked me to withdraw from the election. There is no other reason or political compensation offered. I resigned because of my dignity,' said Haries, a businessman who is also the head of mass organization Pemuda Pancasila.
Dhimam and Haries registered to run for the Surabaya mayor and deputy mayor with support from 10 legislative seats, comprising 6 seats from the Democratic Party and 4 from the National Mandate Party. Earlier, the two parties, and four other parties, comprising the Gerindra Party, Golkar Party, National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), joined with the Majapahit Coalition. The coalition previously agreed to nominate singer Ahmad Dhani Prasetyo and businessman Alim Basa Tualeka as his running mate in the Surabaya mayoral election.
'I will run again in the Surabaya mayoral election in 2017 to fight against Risma, although without Haries,' said Dhimam. (ebf)(++++)
