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Prabowo gears up for potential showdown with Anies
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Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto (right) attends the campaign event of Jakarta gubernatorial candidate pair Anies Baswedan-Sandiaga Uno at Banteng Square, Central Jakarta, on January, 5, 2017. (Antara/M. Agung Rajasa)
The 2024 presidential election is shaping into a three-horse race, and with Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo as the man to beat, a potential showdown to reach the runoffs is looking increasingly inevitable between Gerindra Party leader Prabowo Subianto and his former ally, Anies Baswedan.
For Prabowo, 2024 could be 2014 all over again, with the ex-general again forced to compete with a former beneficiary for the presidency.
In 2014, Prabowo faced off against Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, whom he had backed in the Jakarta governorship race just two years before. A decade later, Prabowo will again be battling another politician he helped win the capital’s top job: Anies.
In a meeting on Sunday at Prabowo’s residence in the West Java village of Hambalang between him and NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh, who is backing Anies’ presidential bid, Prabowo finally acknowledged that he would have to compete with yet another former Jakarta governor.
“If NasDem is firm in its support of Anies, then we have to respect that. We’re prepared to face them and let the people vote,” said the former commander of the Army’s special forces.
‘Intersecting voting bloc’
Prabowo and Anies are currently the only presidential hopefuls to have secured formal backing from electoral alliances with more than 20 percent of seats at the House of Representatives, the presidential nomination threshold.
