TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Prabowo to meet Puan to discuss grand alliance
Change Size
In this file photo dated Feb. 6, 2020, Gerindra chairman Prabowo Subianto delivers a speech during the party's 12th anniversary at the Gerindra Central Executive Board (DPP) office in South Jakarta. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
Gerindra leader Prabowo Subianto is expected to have a sit down with Puan Maharani, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) executive in charge of leading party efforts in exploring potential electoral alliances, to discuss the possibility of the ruling party joining the proposed grand alliance of pro-government parties.
Prabowo, now a leading frontrunner in the latest public opinion poll, said on Monday that he had been invited to meet with Puan when the two bumped into each other and had a chat during the celebration of the 77th anniversary of the Air Force on Sunday.
“She [at the time] asked to have a meeting," Prabowo said. "She said that maybe [a meeting] will be arranged sometime soon. I think all parties are open to having a talk.”
Leaders of five pro-government parties announced last week they were considering stitching together a big-tent alliance by merging the Golkar Party-led United Indonesia Coalition (KIB) and the Gerindra-led Great Indonesia Awakening Coalition (KKIR), to back a pro-government candidate to run in the 2024 presidential race.
The KIB’s National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Zulkifli Hassan, a close ally of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, claimed on Saturday that the formation of the grand alliance was “under the command [and] orchestration of Jokowi”. Zulkifli added that he himself “was ready to do anything, go here and there, to knit the alliance together, so a solid front of the ‘middle way’ can become a reality”.
Read also: Party leaders agree on grand alliance for 2024 election: Prabowo
The absence of the PDI-P, of which Jokowi is a member, during last week’s announcement, however, had raised speculation that the initiative would isolate the ruling party after what appears to be a clash between Jokowi and his party over Israeli participation in the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup, which led to Indonesia’s shock removal as host of the global soccer event.
