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Parties seek votes through Jokowi factor
Leaders talk: Members of the Hanura Party talk on Thursday near a sign announcing the party’s two-day leadership meeting in Kuta, Bali, beginning Friday
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span class="inline inline-center">Leaders talk: Members of the Hanura Party talk on Thursday near a sign announcing the party’s two-day leadership meeting in Kuta, Bali, beginning Friday. The event will feature leaders from 34 provincial boards as well as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Friday.(JP/Zul Trio Anggono)
The United Indonesia Party (Perindo), a small party led by media tycoon Hary Tanoesoedibjo, did not use to support President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Hary backed Jokowi’s rival Prabowo Subianto in the 2014 presidential election and after establishing Perindo in 2015, the media tycoon had been critical of the government.
During the Jakarta gubernatorial election earlier this year, Perindo backed Anies Baswedan, who was nominated by the opposition camp, against former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who was backed by members of Jokowi’s ruling coalition.
On Wednesday, therefore, it came as some surprise to other parties when the party made a U-turn and announced its plan to back Jokowi in the 2019 presidential election.
Perindo’s surprise decision has further cemented the President’s position as the candidate to beat in 2019, and given Jokowi’s high approval rating among voters, more parties — mainly the smaller ones — are likely to follow suit, analysts say.
For some parties, backing Jokowi is a rational decision that should win votes in the 2019 legislative election, which will be held simultaneously with the presidential election.
“We are sure that it will boost our electability. If we weren’t sure, we wouldn’t decide to support him,” Perindo secretary-general Ahmad Rofiq told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Perindo is the latest party to support Jokowi’s re-election. The first party to do so was Golkar, which officially nominated Jokowi as its presidential candidate in 2016, three years before election day.
Golkar made the same argument: Supporting Jokowi would help the party garner more votes in the legislative election.
In February this year, Hanura followed Golkar’s step in supporting Jokowi during the party’s executive inauguration in Bogor, West Java. The party will reaffirm its decision during a national leadership meeting in Bali scheduled for Aug. 4-5.
“Actually, we have already decided to support Jokowi in 2019 and tomorrow we’ll declare it again in front of Jokowi,” said Hanura executive Jafar Badjeber, adding that the meeting was likely to also discuss the possibility of Hanura putting up Jokowi’s running mate.
The United Development Party (PPP) made a similar move last month, a day after the House of Representatives decided to retain the presidential threshold provision in the newly passed election bill.
NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh has several times declared his support for Jokowi’s re-election, though the party has yet to formally do so. Other smaller parties, such as the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), have also said they are rooting for Jokowi for 2019.
Political observer Arya Fernandes of think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that the bar was now higher for new political parties to enter the House of Representatives, with the new election law raising the legislative threshold from 3.5 to 4 percent.
“It will be difficult for them to reach that number, and their most effective way of boosting electability is by expressing support for Jokowi. Party support for a candidate is one factor in determining their electability in the election, because the public generally look at the man behind the parties.”
He added that the parties in Jokowi’s ruling coalition also needed to declare their support for Jokowi to avoid being kicked out of his Cabinet. Rumors are rife that Jokowi is planning to reshuffle his Cabinet soon.
Political expert Hendri Satrio of Paramadina University said there was no guarantee that along the way the parties would not change their minds and support other candidates.
“They support Jokowi because they have no alternative candidate they can support,” he said.
A Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) survey released in June showed that Jokowi’s approval rating stood at 67 percent, exactly the same figure he got in July last year.
The survey also found that Jokowi would win against Prabowo in a head-to-head simulation. Jokowi’s electability stood at 53.7 percent, while Prabowo’s was 37.2 percent.
