Vice presidential candidate Muhaimin Iskandar said he was open to the possibility of forming an alliance with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and its presidential candidate pair Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD if the 2024 presidential election went to a run-off.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman said this while congratulating the PDI-P and its matriarch, Megawati Soekarnoputri, on the party’s 51st anniversary.

"We have to congratulate them, as a fellow political party that has a long relationship with the PKB," Muhaimin said after a campaign event in Surabaya, East Java, on Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

"Bu [Megawati] is like a parent to me, I often get feedback, criticism, I even get scolded and affronted [by her], it's all normal with Bu [Megawati]," he added.

Presidential candidate Anies Baswedan, who runs with Muhaimin, also congratulated the PDI-P on its anniversary.

Muhaimin, however, said the chance of an alliance was not limited to the PDI-P, but all parties. According to Muhaimin, he and Anies maintained good relations with all the party elites.

Meanwhile, Billy David Nerotumilena, a spokesperson for the Anies-Muhaimin campaign team, said the PDI-P anniversary was an opportunity to affirm the commitment of Anies-Muhaimin and Ganjar-Mahfud to maintain a peaceful election without intervention and abuse of power.

However, Billy said that for now, Anies and Muhaimin were focused on winning the presidential election that was only a month away.

"We don't want to speculate yet about the direction of the coalition in the future," Billy said, as quoted by tempo.co.

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