Even though the general election is still two years out, the race to find strong contenders is heating up as coalition building continues. Striving not to be beaten in nominating the best presidential and vice presidential hopefuls, the “headless” KIB coalition has made several advances.

Most recently, National Mandate Party (PAN) deputy chair and incumbent Bogor Mayor Bima Arya spoke candidly about endorsing Ridwan as Ganjar’s potential running mate, having signaled that both names were under consideration by his party’s local branch.

“[Ridwan’s] family comes from a pesantren [Islamic boarding school] background; he is close to them. Meanwhile, Ganjar is a national activist. They are different but complement one another,” Bima said last week.

But the proposal has not completely won over PAN’s fellow coalition partners. As the second-largest political party by legislative seats, the nationalist Golkar Party formed the KIB with Islamic parties PAN and the United Development Party (PPP) in the hope of securing enough seats to nominate their own presidential and vice presidential candidate pair. However, the coalition’s preferred choices have lacked the public appeal to match the frontrunners.

Bima has also floated the idea of the KIB forging an alliance with the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) if it nominates Ganjar.

“The options are still plentiful for the road ahead. The PDI-P might still nominate Ganjar and we could join with them in the hope that his running mate will represent the KIB,” Bima said in Surakarta, Central Java, on Oct. 28.

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