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Doubt lingers about Anies’ Jakarta bid, with backers at odds over running mate
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Former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan delivers a speech at the commemoration of the 26th anniversary of the National Awakening Party (PKB) in Jakarta on July 21, 2024. (Antara/Rivan Awal Lingga)
Former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan may have secured enough support from political parties to seek reelection in the city’s upcoming gubernatorial race, but questions nonetheless remain over whether he will be able to run, as his backers have offered differing views on whom to name his running mate.
On Monday, the NasDem Party, the main sponsor of Anies’ presidential bid in the February election, declared its support for the former governor in the Jakarta election in November, ending months of speculation that it was planning to endorse one of its own members for the gubernatorial race.
NasDem was the second party to declare its support for Anies’ gubernatorial bid, after the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). The Islam-based party, which also supported Anies’ presidential candidacy in February, decided last month to nominate him for the regional election.
With NasDem and the PKS joining forces to back his bid, Anies looks set to fulfill the legal requirements to become a gubernatorial candidate: having the support of a party or coalition of parties that holds at least 20 percent of seats in the regional legislative council.
But the two parties and other potential backers are still far from agreement on whom Anies should be running with.
The PKS, which won the most seats in Jakarta's legislative council in the February general election, has proposed pairing Anies with its former chairman, Mohamad Sohibul Iman. Sohibul, 58, served as a House of Representatives deputy speaker from 2013 to 2014.
PKS chair Ahmad Syaikhu initially said the party’s proposal for Anies’ running mate remained negotiable. But party officials later asserted that Sohibul should be the one accompanying Anies on the ballot if the former Jakarta governor still wished to have the support of the Islam-focused party.
