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Aiming for VP slot, PKB and Dems leaders to skip legislative election
Muhaimin Iskandar, a four-time lawmaker from the National Awakening Party (PKB), will not contest the 2024 legislative race as he is eyeing a presidential nomination.
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Making the right choice: A man cycles past a board listing Malang Council candidates in front of the election commission’s offices in Malang, East Java, in this file photo from 2019. (JP/Aman Rochman)
Underlining its political ambitions, the National Awakening Party (PKB) revealed on Monday party chairman Muhaimin Iskandar would not be seeking reelection as a House of Representatives member in the 2024 legislative election and instead would be focusing his efforts on seeking nomination for the presidential race.
“We want to see Muhaimin’s photo in the 2024 presidential ballot," PKB deputy chairman Jazilul Fawaid said on Monday, Kompas daily reported. Aiming to win at least 100 House seats in the upcoming election, nearly double the number of seats the party currently has, Jazilul expected the coattail effect from Muhaimin’s presidential run would help the mid-sized party to achieve that goal.
PKB currently makes up one half of the Great Indonesia Awakening Coalition (KKIR) with Gerindra, whose chairman, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, announced his candidacy for 2024.
Recently, PKB joined Golkar Party, which controls the second-largest number of House seats, in a renewed effort to drive negotiations forward on a “grand coalition” of pro-government parties, with Prabowo as their presumptive nominee.
While PKB is confident the defense minister will eventually pick Muhaimin as his running mate, analysts say Prabowo was still on the lookout for more-electable candidates.
Read also: Golkar mulls over possible fourth 2024 alliance
First elected to the House in 1999 during the country’s first democratic legislative election, Muhaimin held the deputy speaker position for 10 years before being tapped as a minister in Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s second term of presidency in 2009. The PKB chairman was reelected to the House in 2019, where he remains as one of the deputy speakers.
