F

ollowing in the step of the NasDem Party, the Hanura Party will also announce its support for Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama'€™s independent bid in the 2017 gubernatorial elections.

Hanura Jakarta branch chairwoman Miryam Haryani confirmed on Friday and said that it would officially declare its support soon.

'€œWe will make an official announcement in the coming days. For now, I can only confirm that our support for the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections is aimed at Pak Ahok,'€ Miryam said over the phone Friday.

She said that the decision was made by the Hanura chairman, former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Wiranto, after he met with Ahok'€™s supporters who volunteer at Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) recently. Miryam added that Ahok had scored the highest in an internal survey within the party, had a clean track record and had also solved many problems as governor.

Hanura'€™s support come with no strings attached, she claimed, similar to that of the Nasdem Party'€™s pledge. Previously, NasDem formed the Muda Mudi Ahok (Ahok Youth group) to collect copies of ID cards to support Ahok'€™s independent candidacy. The group will submit the support they collect to Teman Ahok.

Ahok recently announced that he would participate in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election as an independent candidate with the head of Financial and Asset Management Board (BPKAD) Heru Budi Hartono, as his running mate. Independent gubernatorial candidates in Jakarta must collect copies of roughly 532,000 ID cards, about 6.5 percent of the city'€™s to eligible voters. ID cards and forms must be submitted the Jakarta General Elections Commission by Aug. 16 at the latest.

Thus far, Teman Ahok has collected the support of 117,373 people for Ahok and Heru as a candidate pair.

National Awakening Party (PKB) Jakarta branch chairman Hasbiallah Ilyas, on the other hand, said that the party had yet to make a decision on candidates in the upcoming gubernatorial elections, but confirmed that Ahok was currently a front runner. He acknowledged that PKB supporters also favored Ahok for the election.

Hasbiallah said that former president Abdurrahman '€œGus Dur'€ Wahid, an influential PKB figure, had also previously voiced his support for Ahok when he ran for East Belitung regent in 2005.

'€œWe have not yet made a decision. However, Ahok'€™s popularity and Gus Dur'€™s fondness of him are taken into consideration. Currently, Ahok is a front runner,'€ Hasbiallah told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

According to KPU Regulation No. 9/2015 on governor, deputy governor, regent, deputy regent, and/or mayor and deputy mayor candidacy, a coalition of political parties with 20 percent of the total amount of seats in City Council may nominate a pair for an election. As there are 106 seats in the City Council, a party or a coalition of parties must have at least 21 seats to nominate a pair.

NasDem and Hanura have a total of 15 seats in the City Council. With the addition of the PKB, which has six seats, the coalition will be just enough to nominate a pair.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which has 28 seats in the council, can nominate its own candidate without forming a coalition.

Separately, Ahok said that he would continue to run as an independent candidate even if he gained enough support from political parties in the future.

'€œI will run as an independent candidate. The parties that support me already know this,'€ Ahok said.