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Gerindra top destination for party-switching candidates: CSIS study
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A local poll administrator shows an invalid ballot on Nov. 27, 2024, during the tabulation of votes cast in the 2024 Central Java gubernatorial election at a polling station in Semarang, Central Java. (Antara/Makna Zaezar)
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resident Prabowo Subianto’s Gerindra Party was the top choice for party switching ahead of the gubernatorial races in November of last year, largely because of its increasing dominance in national politics, a study has found.
The study, published by the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) last week, found that 27 of 89 candidates running for governor in 37 provinces had broken away from their parties and joined others before registering their bids for office.
Arya Fernandes, head of the CSIS politics department, said the politicians had switched parties to secure nominations or gain more support for their candidacies. Some were fleeing internal conflicts in their parties of origin.
“Party switching depends on how certain it is that the party will nominate the politician,” Arya said.
The study found that Gerindra was the top choice for the 27 politicians changing parties ahead of the gubernatorial elections last year, with seven candidates joining Gerindra, three of whom were initially members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), including Bobby Nasution, the son-in-law of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Bobby made the decision after the PDI-P expelled him for supporting the party’s rival candidate Prabowo and running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka in the presidential election in February of last year, some nine months before the gubernatorial elections. Bobby eventually ran for North Sumatra governor on the ticket of Gerindra and its partners in the Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM). He won by a landslide against PDI-P candidate Edy Rahmayadi, who was also a former governor of North Sumatra.
Gerindra holds the third-largest number of seats in the House of Representatives but has seen its influence growing in national politics following the victory of Prabowo, who won the presidential election largely on the back of the tacit support of Jokowi, a former member of the PDI-P.
