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20% of Ahok’s supporters are our members: PDI-P
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People fill out forms of support along with their identity card-backed signature at the Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) booth in Kuningan City Mall in South Jakarta. (thejakartapost.com/Callistasia Anggun Wijaya)
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politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has said that research carried out by the party showed that 20 percent of Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama supporters were PDI-P members.
PDI-P deputy chairman Komar Watubun said on Thursday that the figure was calculated from Jakarta voters, who had handed over photocopies of their Identity Cards to Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) to fulfill the requirements for Ahok to run as an independent candidate.
“It is because we have not decided on our gubernatorial candidate. After the party decides its candidate, loyal members will support the candidate endorsed by the party,” said Komar in Jakarta on Thursday as reported by tribunnews.com.
Teman Ahok, the most active supporters of the incumbent governor, has said its volunteers had collected more than 800,000 photocopies of IDs, already exceeding the 532,000 required by the regional election law for individuals to run as an independent candidate.
PDI-P had initially considered Ahok as a strong candidate, but Ahok declared himself as an independent candidate when the selection process of the party candidate was still underway to provide Teman Ahok with adequate time to collect the required number of copies of Jakarta voters' IDs.
Komar expressed his optimism that the candidate of his party would be a strong rival for Ahok, because soon after the name of the candidate was declared, his/her electability would increase significantly.
Komar also said that many of the party's candidates could defeat an incumbent such as when the Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Ahok defeated Fauzi Bowo and Nahrawi Ramli in 2012. (bbn)
