PAN in no hurry to pick candidate for 2019 election

The National Mandate Party (PAN) says it will not make any decision regarding the nomination of candidates for the 2019 presidential election in its national meeting in Bandung, West Java, from Aug.21 to 23.

PAN, the first party to leave the opposition coalition to throw its support behind President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration, regards the 2019 presidential election as still too far and that change caused by political dynamics is very possible.

“The meeting is unlikely to talk about presidential candidates, 2019 is still far away. We’ll see the political dynamics first and gather aspirations from the public, including from NU [Nahdlatul Ulema] and Muhammadiyah,” said PAN executive Yandri Susanto, who also chairs the meeting’s steering committee, on Tuesday. He referred to Indonesia’s largest and second-largest Muslim organizations.

With this decision, PAN’s national meeting will be different from the national meetings of other political parties in the government coalition, such as the Hanura Party, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Golkar Party, during which they declared their support for Jokowi’s reelection in 2019.

PAN’s relations with the government have been in question as it has chosen not to take sides with the government and other parties in the ruling coalition on several crucial issues, including the recently passed election bill and the issuance of a regulation in a lieu of law (Perppu) on mass organizations.

PAN has also not yet decided whether to invite President Jokowi to attend the national meeting. (ebf)