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Sandiaga crushes talk of return to City Hall
As the country waits for the General Elections Commission (KPU) to officially announce the results of the 2019 presidential election, speculation is rife that vice-presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno might return to his former position as Jakarta deputy governor, which has been left vacant for more than half a year
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span>As the country waits for the General Elections Commission (KPU) to officially announce the results of the 2019 presidential election, speculation is rife that vice-presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno might return to his former position as Jakarta deputy governor, which has been left vacant for more than half a year.
But Sandiaga, who resigned as deputy governor in August last year to run with presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto in the recently held presidential election, has brushed off the thought.
“For me, the deputy governor seat is my past. Jakarta residents have been wanting a new person. We must all move on,” he said on Wednesday, as reported by kompas.com.
He acknowledged that the seat had been given to the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and urged the Jakarta Council to move on with the selection process.
“The City Council needs to give [Jakarta Governor] Pak Anies Baswedan its final decision,” he said.
Sandiaga’s name was discussed again to fill in the vacant post following quick count results by established pollsters that indicated that the incumbent, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin won the election with 54 to 55 percent of the vote, leaving Prabowo and Sandiaga on the losing end with 45 to 46 percent.
His name came up again as the Jakarta Council appears to be in no hurry to begin the formal process of selecting the new deputy governor. The PKS, which secured the seat after a prolonged tug of war with Prabowo’s Gerindra Party, submitted the names of two of its officials as deputy governor candidates last month. The two parties backed Anies and Sandiaga in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election.
However, with more than 90 percent of councilors seeking reelection, a plenary meeting to decide on the post was held off until the general election in April. Yet, a week after the election, there have been no significant moves by the councilors. The plenary meeting is meant to endorse one of the two deputy governor candidates put forward by the PKS, Akhmad Syaikhu and Agung Yulianto. Prior to the plenary meeting, the City Council must establish a selection committee comprising of 25 councilors to create a code of conduct for the meeting. The seats allocated to each faction is proportional to their legislative seats in the City Council.
City Council secretary Muhammad Yuliadi told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that three parties had not yet delegated representatives to join the selection committee, even though they had been requested to do so in an official letter issued in March. The parties are the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Gerindra and the Democratic Party.
City Council speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi said on Monday that the councilors’ focus was still on the general election. However, he vowed that the City Council would now expedite the process.
“The deputy governor has not yet been endorsed in a plenary meeting. Because of what? The councilors were busy campaigning. But now the campaign is over,” he said.
Speaking on a different occasion, Gerindra Jakarta chairman Mohamad Taufik claimed he had prepared his party to heed the request.
“I have asked [the party] to [delegate people] soon,” he said.
Anies, who previously said he felt overwhelmed by the slew of invitations and events he must attend without a deputy to whom some of them could otherwise be delegated, believed that the discussion would get back on track once the councilors returned from the post-election hustle and bustle.
“I guess the councilors are still waiting for the election results. Later, they will be active again with meetings,” he said on Wednesday.
In response to speculation of Sandiaga returning to City Hall, Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said that, for ethical reasons, Sandiaga should not return, because he had resigned from the position.
“In my opinion, Sandiaga has voluntarily resigned, he should not return,” he said, adding however that there was no rule preventing such a move, as the position was under the authority of the political parties.
The KPU has begun counting the votes and is expected to announce the official results to the public on May 22.
State Islamic University (UIN) political expert Adi Prayitno suggested that Sandiaga should keep his political momentum by joining a political party.
“What is more important is how he could maintain his political stamina to keep him in the public’s mind. The answer could be joining a political party,” he said, referring to Sandiaga, who is nonpartisan after resigning from Gerindra after he officially ran as vice-presidential candidate with Prabowo.
He added that such an attempt was important to make him stay relevant for the 2024 election.
