he head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers Abroad (BNP2TKI), Nusron Wahid, will consult President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo over his double position after he was appointed by Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama as his campaign team leader for the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election.
Nusron said that he would not resign his post at BNP2TKI.
"I will discuss my post with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to see whether he allows me to serve as the chairman of [Ahok]'s campaign team," he told journalists in a discussion event on Saturday.
In a meeting of the NasDem Party's Jakarta chapter, Nusron was elected to lead the campaign team, while Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) cofounder Amalia Ayuningtyas was appointed campaign secretary. Ahok declared his decision to run on a political party ticket on Friday in spite of the protests of Teman Ahok, which collected one million vote pledges from Jakartans for the outspoken governor to run as an independent candidate.
Many have regretted the governor's decision, expressing their disappointment with an online trend under the hashtag #BalikinKTPGue (#ReturnMyIDCard) aimed at Ahok.
The decision, however, was, according to Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political analyst Siti Zuhro, a safe move on the part of the former East Belitung regent. An independent bid, Siti noted, would have faced many challenges in the face of Regional Election Law regulations. (rez/rin)
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