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View all search resultsPDI-P ‘keeping options open’ with VP pick shortlist
PDI-P senior executive Puan Maharani revealed on Sunday a shortlist of potential running mates for Ganjar Pranowo, which experts say was meant to show that the ruling party was still open for negotiations.
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Senior Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) executive Puan Maharani (left, foreground) and Democratic Party chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (right, foreground) are seen on the sidelines of their closed-door meeting at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta on June 18, 2023. (Antara/Asprilla Dwi Adha)
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has revealed a five-name shortlist of potential running mates for its presidential nominee Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, a move experts say signals the party’s insistence on keeping its options open as it looks to find the winning combination for next year's hotly contested election.
Despite being the only party able to field its own candidate pairing for the 2024 elections, the PDI-P has been seeking to widen an electoral alliance comprising the United Development Party (PPP), Perindo and the Hanura Party. The alliance is eager to build its support base to rival that of Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto, whose popularity has been surging in recent opinion polls.
With Ganjar and Prabowo competing neck-and-neck in terms of electability, and both promoting themselves as potential successors to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, much of the attention in the coalition-building process has shifted to the nomination of vice-presidential candidates.
To this end, PDI-P senior executive Puan Maharani revealed on Sunday that there is now a shortlist of potential running mates for Ganjar from a list of 10 names.
“One of them is Cak Imin,” Puan told reporters as quoted by Kompas.com, in reference to National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar, the host of the event in Surakarta, Central Java, to which she was invited that day.
Muhaimin had been courting Prabowo to make him his running mate, as their two parties seek to put together a second electoral alliance able to field its own candidates.
Other names on the PDI-P’s shortlist include Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno, a recent inductee of the PPP; State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir, a close aide of Jokowi; former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. (ret.) Andika Perkasa, an ally of the PDI-P; and Democratic Party chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, whose party is backing a third coalition looking to nominate opposition figurehead Anies Baswedan as its own presidential candidate.
