On Sept. 2, the electoral coalition led by the NasDem Party declared that its presidential nominee, former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan, would be joining forces with National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar, in what turned out to be a move that greatly shifted the map of political alliances.

Then, at the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) headquarters in Central Jakarta on Wednesday, party chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri called a press conference to name Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD the running mate to presidential nominee Ganjar Pranowo.

Voters now have a clearer picture of who will contest next year’s election, pending a decision from the Gerindra Party-led coalition on who to endorse to run alongside presumptive presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.

Ganjar and Mahfud are expected to register on the first day of the window, setting up a likely encounter with Anies and Muhaimin, who earlier said they would be at the General Elections Commission (KPU) office as soon as registration opens.

While the Anies-Muhaimin pair (dubbed Amin) has made it a point to start well ahead of their competition, the long-awaited announcement by the PDI-P camp comes two days after the Constitutional Court indirectly cleared a path for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s eldest son, Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to contest as a potential vice-presidential candidate.

However, backlash against the ruling, based on fresh accusations of court hijacking and dynastic politics, has dampened the 36-year-old’s chances of stepping up as a candidate for the Advance Indonesia Coalition, which consists of Gerindra, Golkar, the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), as well as seven smaller parties.

Prabowo’s camp will wait until Jokowi and his entourage return from abroad on Saturday. The entourage includes PAN chairman and Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan, as well as State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir, who is next in line for the VP slot if Gibran’s endorsement falls through.

For months, the question of who should run alongside the presumptive presidential candidates has been presented as a mathematical problem, highlighting our flawed election system.

Candidate pairings are driven by the need to showcase a perceived representation of voter groups and power sharing, rather than for public interest or accountability.

After all, who is to say where public interest lies in a country of 270 million people?

In 2019, Jokowi chose conservative Muslim cleric Ma’ruf Amin over Mahfud, himself a venerated Muslim scholar linked to the nation’s largest religious group, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). But Ma’ruf was considered to have wider appeal for the non-monolithic Muslim majority, especially those considered part of the fickle segment of swing voters.

Next year, the youth vote will be just as important as the Muslim vote or the Javanese vote. But we should not let these electoral realities get in the way of us making the most of our free and direct elections.

Throughout the years, after countless lessons learned and truths that were hard to swallow, democracy in Indonesia still thrives on the will of the people. So, it is incumbent on the governing class and political elite to deliver real choices for the people, beyond mathematical considerations.

Regardless of who ends up on the ballot, it is always better to be spoiled for choice rather than return to the de facto dictatorship of the New Order. We, as voters, always have the agency to decide what is best for the nation.

The more the merrier.