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Analysis: Golkar faces pressure over presidential nominations
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Golkar Party Chairperson Airlangga Hartarto (front center) together with the management of the Golkar Party after the Extraordinary National Conference (Munaslub) 2017 at the Golkar Party DPP Office, Jakarta, Monday (1/22/2018). The management structure of the Golkar Party for the 2018-2019 period resulting from restructuring and revitalization totaling 251 people was slimmer than before as many as 305 people. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
Since the NasDem Party recently declared outgoing Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan its presidential candidate, the Golkar Party might be buckling under the pressure to finalize its choice candidate too. Though the party previously maintained it would back chairman Airlangga Hartarto’s presidential ambitions, a final decision has yet to be made.
Golkar appeared to have fallen into slight disarray when the party’s advisory council chairman Akbar Tandjung expressed his support for Anies’ presidential bid. Golkar central executive board chairman Ace Hasan Syadzily as well as other party executives were quick to explain that Akbar was simply congratulating Anies. Ace underlined that the party still insists on nominating Airlangga as a presidential candidate, in accordance with the party’s national congress in 2019.
However, because Golkar alone did not meet the presidential threshold mandated to make a nomination, it formed one of the earliest electoral alliances ahead of the 2024 elections, the United Indonesia Coalition (KIB), which includes the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP). But despite being often dubbed a “Golkar-led coalition”, the party itself still has no name strong enough to rival the frontrunners in most public opinion polls.
Even as a member of the Cabinet, Airlangga still has consistently scored low in opinion surveys. In a recent survey conducted by Political Weather Station (PWS), of the ten names that were mentioned, only 1.8 percent of respondents would vote Airlangga for president, whereas Gerindra chairman Prabowo Subianto garnered the most votes (30.8%), followed by Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo (18.8%) and Anies (17.5%).
In this sense, it seems as though Golkar is gradually losing its bargaining power if it cannot bring a strong contender to the table. Meanwhile, though several Golkar executives have confirmed Airlangga’s candidacy, both PAN and PPP claimed that the alliance had not yet decided who it will nominate.
PAN secretary-general Eddy Soeparno said that Airlangga was one of nine figures being considered a potential presidential candidate. Of this number, the party plans to shortlist the candidates to three to five names in its national leadership meeting later this month.
Similarly, PPP deputy chairman Arsul Sani added that each party in the alliance was entitled to conduct its own screening process to determine suitable presidential and vice-presidential candidate pairs. Arsul also added that the KIB was open to backing any presidential hopeful, including Ganjar. This raises a few questions as Ace also claimed that the KIB will not be nominating anyone outside of the coalition.
