Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama said on Friday that he will partner up with a top city official if his current deputy governor does not get permission from his political party to be his running mate in the 2017 gubernatorial election.

Ahok is eyeing the chairman of the city's Financial and Asset Management Board (BPKAD), Heru Budi Hartono, to pair up with him in the upcoming election if Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat needs to be replaced.

"If the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) does not allow Djarot to run with me, I will run with Heru," Ahok told journalists at the City Hall on Friday.

Djarot is a member of PDI-P, which had yet to declare which candidate it would support in the 2017 election.

Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok), a group of supporters, are helping the governor collect Jakarta citizens' identity cards for him to run as an independent candidate.

The deadline for the PDI-P to make a decision about whether to allow Djarot to run with Ahok is March 11, Ahok said, adding that the Friends of Ahok needed to acquire a deputy governor's name as soon as possible in order to arrange the candidacy plans.

Heru's name came to Ahok's mind as Heru was close to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo when the latter served as Jakarta governor.

"I have trusted Heru and even President Jokowi knows him well," he added.

Still, he denied that he chose Heru solely because of Heru's closeness with Jokowi, explaining that as a civil servant in the city administration, Heru has the least issues.

During Jokowi's term as governor, Heru served as a regional head and an international cooperation bureau chief and later as North Jakarta mayor before being appointed by Ahok as BPKAD chairman in 2015.

Besides being BPKAD chairman, Heru also serves as a commissioner at city-owned Bank DKI and as president commissioner of city-controlled public company PT Delta Djakarta TBK, which manufactures and distributes beer.

By having Heru as his possible running mate, Ahok also hoped to show the public that there are still many honest city civil servants.

Despite being chosen by Ahok, Heru said seperately that he hoped Ahok and Djarot could pair up in next year's election.

"They fit each other. They can continue their work," he said on Friday.

Still, he welcomed the possibilty of being a deputy governor candidate should Ahok not run with Djarot.

"If it is the governor's will, I'll be ready. Bismillah [in the name of God]," Heru added.

Ahok had announced that he would make an official announcement of running as an independent candidate in the 2017 Jakarta election in the near future.

The Friends of Ahok had gathered at least 760,000 citizen IDs, surpassing the requirement set by Jakarta General Election Commision for a minimum of 532,000 IDs for a candidate to be independent. (rin)

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