Next year’s contest is likely to be a three-horse race among Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan.

But people who are dissatisfied with these options should vote anyway, Coordinating Legal, Political and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD asserted on Tuesday.

“If you think none of our prospective leaders are good [or that] all of them are bad, do not abstain; choose the lesser evil,” Mahfud said during a discussion live-streamed on YouTube.

“Elections are not just about finding a good leader,” he said, but “about preventing the greater evil from becoming a leader”.

His comments come amid an impasse in coalition building ahead of the opening of candidate registration for 2024.

The country is set to hold the world’s biggest single-day election on Feb. 14 of next year, with an estimated 206 million voters expected to head to polling stations to elect the country’s next president and vice president, as well as legislators and councilors at both the national and regional levels.

Mahfud, who himself has been touted as a potential candidate for the vice presidency, argued that there was no such thing as a "perfect candidate" in any election and that there were “no prospective leaders who are entirely bad either".

But to determine who the “lesser” or “greater” evil was required voters to think freely and objectively, said Firman Noor, a senior political researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).

“The public needs to be objective and not easily swayed by political buzzers in the search for the most capable person to take the top job,” Firman told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

“If candidates succeed in conveying their ideas in a straightforward and objective way, [...] I think the public in general can make an informed decision,” he said.

VP effect

While the deadline for the registration of presidential and vice presidential candidates is just three months away, alliance arrangements remain tentative.

Parties are rallying behind their preferred candidates for the vice presidency, with pollster data suggesting that the choice of running mate will have a big influence on a presidential ticket’s electability.

Yenny Wahid, the daughter of late president and Islamic scholar Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, made comments on Tuesday that appeared to suggest she was open to running as a vice presidential candidate, sparking discussion of a possible reconfiguration of electoral alliances.

"As someone who has been involved in politics for quite a long time, one must be ready to enter public office," she told reporters in Jakarta.

Yenny is reportedly on the shortlist of potential running mates for opposition figurehead Anies. Discussion of the potential pairing, however, has created discord within the three-way alliance backing Anies, dubbed the Coalition for Change and Unity (KPP).

The Democratic Party, a member of the KPP, has been pushing for its chairman Agus "AHY" Harimurti Yudhoyono to run alongside Anies and claims having Agus on the ticket would be the only way for the former governor to win next year.

“Aside from leading a party, national level support for AHY is also high. If one wants to win, one must partner with AHY,” Syarief Hasan, a senior party executive, said on Tuesday.

Internal debates over running mates have also emerged in Ganjar’s camp, which is led by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). On Tuesday, a member of the National Development Party (PPP), which backs Ganjar's candidacy, suggested that it was open to alternatives if its newest member, Sandiaga Uno, was not selected as Ganjar’s running mate.

"Even though we respect that it is the PDI-P, or Bu Mega [PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri], who will decide who will run alongside Pak Ganjar, perhaps colleagues in the PPP are saying, 'We also want to be invited to the table,'" Arsul Sani, deputy chairman of the PPP, said on Tuesday.