Ridwan Kamil (JP/Arya Dipa)

Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil has topped recent political opinion surveys for the 2018 West Java gubernatorial election, but the popular mayor, who has a strong following online, is now struggling to keep his gubernatorial bid alive with political parties showing little interest in nominating him.

The Gerindra Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which brought him to the top post in Bandung city, have severed ties with him after he made a surprise announcement in March that he would run for governor with the support of the NasDem Party.

The two parties have thrown their support behind incumbent West Java Deputy Governor Deddy Mizwar, a former actor who has garnered significant support among Muslim voters.

Gerindra executive Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said that Ridwan received no support in the plenary meeting of the party in West Java when its local leaders met to decide who the party and the PKS would endorse in the 2018 regional election in West Java.

“It is a fact his name did not come up during a regional meeting of the party recently. We will soon officially announce the candidacy of Deddy. Also, the PKS never mentioned Ridwan’s name,” Dasco told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Meanwhile, it appears the largest and second-largest political parties in West Java, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party, do not want to follow the Gerindra Party and PKS, and have set their sights on another candidate.

The PDI-P and Golkar Party opted to endorse Golkar Party cadre Purwakarta Regent Dedi Mulyadi instead of Ridwan, who they had previously identified as a prospective candidate in West Java, the nation’s largest province.

A Poltracking Indonesia survey has reported that Ridwan is the most popular candidate with 43 percent of respondents saying they would vote for the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) architect.

Deddy is the second most popular candidate with 16 percent, followed by Dedi with 11 percent.

Golkar Party executive Yorrys Raweyai said that Golkar and the PDI-P were moving closer to endorsing Dedi as their candidate.

“The support among party members for Dedi is getting stronger because he is our cadre,” Yorrys said, adding that the two parties would officially announce their candidate in September.

Yorrys said that Ridwan might have to hear bad news, as the NasDem Party, the only party supporting his candidacy, would likely abandon him and join the Golkar-PDI-P coalition.

“We, PDI-P and Golkar, are likely to work with NasDem in the upcoming election. Let’s see what happens because politics is always dynamic,” Yorrys.

NasDem is a small party in the West Java Regional Legislative Council (DPRD), controlling only five of 100 seats. A party must control at least 20 percent of seats in the council to be able to field a gubernatorial candidate.

Five small and medium parties in West Java, including the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Democratic Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the United Development Party (PPP) and the Hanura Party, have formed an alternative coalition for the upcoming West Java regional elections.

But they are still reluctant to name Ridwan as their candidate and are looking for new names to challenge Deddy and Dedi. One of the names to have emerged is Bogor Mayor Bima Arya.

The 2018 regional elections will be held in June, with parties required to register their candidates in January.

Ridwan said he was convinced he would be able to run for governor. “I am not worried that I will be left out in the cold. January is months from now,” he said, as quoted by kompas.com.

Jakarta State Islamic University (UIN) political expert Adi Prayitno said that Ridwan made a blunder when he announced his gubernatorial bid and severed ties with Gerindra and the PKS.

“Parties may see him as an unethical candidate because of that blunder,” Adi added.

He said it was unlikely that Ridwan would run as an independent, as his supporters were not as loyal as the supporters of former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.

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