Leaders of the pro-government NasDem Party and two opposition parties, the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), have inked a deal to back Anies’ presidential bid in 2024, as revealed in a news conference on Friday by the joint team tasked with finalizing the memorandum of understanding (MoU).

The development dismisses months of speculation that the electoral alliance would cease to exist, after NasDem appeared to have second thoughts about nominating the former Jakarta governor.

The deal outlines the creation of a new alliance named Coalition of Change for Unity (KPP) and its commitment to supporting Anies’ candidacy.

It also gives him the freedom to choose his own running mate, who is expected to contribute to winning the 2024 presidential election with “high electability and low political vulnerability”, help “strengthen and maintain the stability of the [alliance]” and implement “effective governance”, which are among the terms of the MoU.

Potential VP picks

Several names have been added to the list of potential running mates, including Democrat leader Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono and former West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan, a PKS politician, Anies’ spokesman Sudirman Said said on Friday.

Sudirman noted that each political party had nominated its preferred vice presidential candidate.

Continuing, he said NasDem had proposed popular moderate Muslim figures, such as East Java Governor Khofifah Indah Parawansa and Yenny Wahid, the daughter of the late former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Andika Perkasa was also among the names raised at the negotiating table, Sudirman said.

Senior NasDem politician Sugeng Suparwoto, who was on the team assigned to finalize the deal, said on Saturday that the alliance was aiming to name a vice presidential candidate by July, two months before registration opened for the presidential election.

The team was currently waiting for the rival camp to announce its candidates.

“Picking an external figure as Anies’ running mate could actually work as a solution, as it puts [the KPP’s] members on an equal footing,” Dedi Kurnia Syah, executive director of pollster Indonesia Political Opinion, told The Jakarta Post.

“This could happen, as both the Democratic Party and the PKS have shown a willingness to compromise in signing the political deal, and [publicly] said they would leave the decision to Anies,” he added.

Widening alliance

Apart from hunting for Anies’ running mate, the KPP has also hinted at expanding the alliance, as some of its members claim that other factions in the House of Representatives have expressed an interest in joining them.

"There are party leaders who want to join [the KPP], on the condition that they become [Anies’] running mate. They have said they are ready to join,” Sohibul Iman, deputy chair of the PKS advisory council, said on Friday.

Willy Aditya, who chairs NasDem’s central executive board, also said the alliance would seek to intensify talks with those parties that had expressed an interest: "If our neighbors fail to reach an agreement [on their presidential pair], why don’t we work together?”

Forming alliances in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election remains fluid, though none of the three groups eligible to contest it has announced their candidates: the United Indonesia Coalition (KIB) led by the Golkar Party, the Great Indonesia Awakening Coalition (KKIR) led by the Gerindra Party, and the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the only political party to single-handedly fulfill the presidential nomination threshold.

Agung Baskoro, executive director of political consultancy Trias Politika Strategis, told the Post that it was possible the KPP would bring in additional parties.

This was especially so amid the speculation that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was lobbying for a pairing between Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo of the PDI-P and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto of Gerindra.

“The rumors unfolding of a Prabowo-Ganjar or a Ganjar-Prabowo pairing have caused tension on many political fronts,” he said.

“The PKB [National Awakening Party] or its leader Muhaimin Iskandar, who has been keen on running in the coming presidential race, may be disappointed for being left out of any talks of pairing Prabowo with Ganjar” that involved its ally Gerindra or Jokowi, added Agung.

He also suggested “there could be KIB members yet to decide on who to nominate for president and vice president that will consider the KPP as an alternative”.

One among these was the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP), which was part of the KIB and had grassroots supporters who were traditionally inclined toward Anies, according to Agung

‘Longtime friend’

Meanwhile, Golkar chairman Airlangga Hartarto, who attended an iftar gathering on Saturday hosted by NasDem patron Surya Paloh that Anies also attended, responded coyly when asked if he had been invited to join the KPP, reported Kompas.com.

Airlangga said he had only attended the gathering as “a longtime friend of Surya”, who had been his senior at Golkar before quitting the party to form NasDem.

As for forming alliances, he quipped that “[we] both have our own”.

“If we were in the same [electoral alliance], then of course communication would greatly factor in politics,” he said, as quoted by Kompas.com.

“[But] we must also maintain open communication with each other so that the political process runs smoothly. We will oversee this process together.” (ahw)

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