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.
PDI-P prepares to lead fight against KIM dominance in regional polls
With just a little over two weeks to go until candidate registration opens, the PDI-P is racing to clinch political deals to prevent uncontested regional polls in November as other parties show signs of inching toward joining the ranks of Prabowo's KIM.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A group of women looks at posters encouraging people to vote in this year’s regional head elections, displayed on Aug. 5, 2024 at an event in Temanggung, Central Java. (Antara/Anis Efizudin)
As concern grows over the possible rise of single or dummy candidates running on the ticket of president-elect Prabowo Subianto’s Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is working to prevent the alliance from sweeping the regional head elections.
Since its success in the presidential election, the KIM’s four major parties – Prabowo’s Gerindra Party, the Golkar Party, the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN) – have been looking to expand the alliance so they can put forth their preferred candidates to contest the simultaneous regional race in November.
As lobbying intensifies among candidates ahead of the three-day registration period that opens on Aug. 27, more political parties are hinting at their interest in joining the KIM, raising the alliance’s prospects of sweeping the race uncontested in key electoral districts.
Warning that such electoral engineering would run counter to the people’s aspirations, the PDI-P has vowed to ensure that “no election is left uncontested” by seeking ways to nominate candidates, either on its own or by forming a rival alliance.
Aryo Seno Bagaskoro, the PDI-P’s regional elections spokesperson, said the party “remains optimistic” that it could form an alliance.
“There are always last-minute surprises before the curtain falls. It is possible for various dynamics to occur at this time,” Seno told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
"So for us, there is still ample time to build and intensify communication with politicians of other parties before [candidate] registration closes at the end of August.
