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PDI-P still pondering Risma to challenge Ahok
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A poster of Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini featured on the Twitter account @Karisma-Jakarta. (@Karistma-Jakarta/via kompas.com)
T
he Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is still considering nominating Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini as a gubernatorial candidate to challenge incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama in the 2017 gubernatorial election.
Risma has rejected the idea, saying she will focus on serving as Surabaya mayor for a five-year term, as she promised during her mayoral election campaign.
Idham Samawi, PDI-P deputy chairman for senior member recruitment and ideology, said he would take inspiration from the grassroots, who demanded Risma be nominated as the party’s candidate in the Jakarta election at a PDI-P executive board meeting.
“If the party decides to nominate Risma, she should be ready. As a cadre, she should obey the party’s decision,” Idham said as reported by kompas.com on Friday.
Idham referred to a call from a group of Risma supporters, calling themselves Risma Volunteers, who visited the PDI-P headquarters to demand the party nominate Risma as the Jakarta gubernatorial candidate.
They said Risma had to challenge Ahok because they were not happy with the performance of the governor, who they called an arrogant leader.
“We need a firm but not arrogant governor. We need a governor who leads the city with heart. Therefore, we want to push Ibu Risma to be nominated,” one group member said during a meeting at the PDI-P headquarters in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Thursday.
Ahok is s still considered the most eligible gubernatorial candidate, while Risma is in second position, according to a number of surveys.
Ahok, who declared himself an independent candidate in March, was supported by three political parties – the NasDem Party, Hanura Party and Golkar Party.
His volunteers, grouped under Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) have managed to collect more than 950,000 photocopies of voters’ identity cards, far more than the threshold of 532,000 as required by law. (bbn)
