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View all search resultsWith Prabowo on other side, opposition parties seek new icons
The Democratic Party is set to elect Agus Yudhoyono as its new chairman in an upcoming congress, a move that is apparently aimed at boosting his leadership credentials before the next election.
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Agus Yudhoyono (Antara/Jessica Helena Wuysang)
W
ith Prabowo Subianto, the former leader of the opposition camp, now joining the ruling coalition, the remaining opposition parties are left searching for new icons to turn things around before the 2024 general election.
The Democratic Party, for example, is set to elect Agus Yudhoyono as its new chairman in an upcoming congress, a move that is apparently aimed at boosting his leadership credentials before the next election. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), meanwhile, is toying with the idea of working with other parties to nominate Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan as its presidential candidate.
The keyword is regeneration, party officials say.
While the door remains open for Prabowo to run for election again, the opposition parties — the PKS, the Democrats and the National Mandate Party (PAN) — say it is time for new figures to take up national leadership roles.
The Democrats, who gained 10.9 percent of the popular vote in 2014 and had to settle with 7.7 percent in April’s election, blamed its declining performance on the absence of a strong figure associated with the party. The party had no choice but to endorse Prabowo and Sandiaga Uno — both are Gerindra Party politicians — after failing to form a coalition to field its own candidate.
“Regeneration is the key. We want the Dems, ahead, to be led by the generation that has a spirit to improve [the party] and is close to the people,” Agus said in a recent interview with The Jakarta Post.
The eldest son of former president and party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono admitted that he was part of the new generation and that many within the party’s rank and file have demanded that he lead the party.
