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.
Golkar, PAN declare support for Prabowo in 2024 election
Golkar Party, the second largest party in the House of Representatives, and the smaller pro-government National Mandate Party (PAN) declared on Sunday their support for Prabowo Subianto, Gerindra Party's chair and presidential candidate for next year’s election.
Change Size
Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto delivers a speech on Feb. 6, 2020, during the party's 12th anniversary at the Gerindra Central Executive Board (DPP) office in South Jakarta. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
Golkar Party, the second largest party in the House of Representatives, and the smaller pro-government National Mandate Party (PAN) declared on Sunday their support for Prabowo Subianto, Gerindra Party's chair and presidential candidate for next year’s election.
The announcement was made by Golkar and PAN chairs Airlangga Hartarto and Zulkifli Hasan at the Tugu Proklamasi (Proclamation Monument) complex in Central Jakarta in front of Prabowo himself. Also attending the event was Muhaimin Iskandar, who leads the pro-government National Awakening Party (PKB), Gerindra’s existing partner for the 2024 presidential election.
“Golkar sees Prabowo’s leadership as appropriate in bringing Indonesia out of the middle-income trap," said Airlangga, who is also coordinating economic minister President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration.
Airlangga added that Prabowo, who is also the defense minister, was the right man to continue the legacy of Jokowi.
Zulkifli, meanwhile, cited PAN's long-standing history of backing Prabowo in past presidential elections as a reason for its continued support for the retired general.
“For the past 10 years, we have fought together with Prabowo [during the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections],” Zulkfifli said.
Golkar and PAN, along with the United Development Party (PPP), were previously grouped under the United Indonesia Coalition (KIB), the first electoral alliance to be formed ahead of next year’s election. But the KIB had struggled to settle on a single presidential pairing since its inception, which ultimately ended with the PPP switching its allegiance and backing Ganjar Pranowo, the presidential candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), of which Jokowi is a member.
Having two more pro-government parties backing Prabowo means that the Gerindra-led alliance now controls over 46 percent of House seats. Initially, the Gerindra-PKB alliance controlled more than 20 percent of House seats and was already eligible to field a candidate pair for the February election.
But finding a running mate for Prabowo could be a difficult task given that Golkar and PKB are eager to nominate their own party heads as running mates, while PAN has proposed State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir as a potential vice-presidential candidate.
