The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Gerindra Party played down the potential formation of a big-tent coalition of parties that would combine their respective presumptive presidential candidates on a single ticket.

With the new late-October deadline for presidential election candidate registration fast approaching, party elites have been rehashing a proposal to pair the two frontrunners, Defense Minister and Gerindra chair Prabowo Subianto and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo of the PDI-P, on a single ticket. This would make Anies Baswedan and Muhaimin Iskandar of the Coalition of Change for Unity (KPP) the only other candidate pair in next year’s election.

Both Prabowo and Ganjar have claimed to be natural successors of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who will continue his legacy.

Some PDI-P politicians, however, repeatedly shot down the idea of Ganjar running as Prabowo’s running mate, insisting that backtracking on the decision to nominate Ganjar as a presidential candidate was “almost impossible”.

“There has never been a precedent where the PDI-P, let alone Ibu Megawati, withdrew a decision," politician Deddy Sitorus told The Jakarta Post, referring to party chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri.

“Ganjar is the PDI-P’s best choice to be nominated as the presidential candidate. The decision took careful consideration and extensive discussion. The focus of our chairwoman and party executives now is to decide on who will be the vice-presidential candidate, nothing else," Deddy added.

Opting instead to press ahead with Ganjar’s presidential bid, the PDI-P has also suggested that it had narrowed down its own list of potential running mates for Ganjar, and that it was only a matter of time before the chosen candidate would be unveiled to the public.

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