It’s still early in the two-way race for Central Java governor, but signs show a fierce competition may emerge between a former military chief on the ticket of the largest party in the province and a strongly backed former provincial police chief who has been running a campaign riding on the popularity of outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Gubernatorial candidate Andika Perkasa and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) will try to defend the party’s traditional stronghold against the early dominance of the big coalition behind rival Ahmad Luthfi, an ally of former PDI-P member Jokowi.
Lutfhi, a retired three-star police general, has been a frontrunner in public opinion polls since May, but the popularity of Andika, a retired four-star army general, has been quickly rising since his nomination by the PDI-P last month.
Battle of generals
Political analysts have dubbed the Central Java race a perang bintang (star war) in reference to the stars that Andika and Luthfi wore during their respective times in the military and the police.
The 59-year-old Andika joined the PDI-P last year after a decades-long, decorated military career that included commanding the Indonesian Military (TNI), the Presidential Security Detail (Paspampres) and the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad).
Andika will run alongside Hendrar “Hendi” Prihadi, a fellow PDI-P member and a former two-time mayor of Semarang, the capital city of Central Java.
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