July 8, 2024
JAKARTA – The political parties backing president-elect Prabowo Subianto face a bumpy road to agree on joint nominations for the November regional elections in several key regions after some of them insisted on nominating their own preferred candidates.
The Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM), Prabowo’s electoral alliance that was led by his own Gerindra Party, intends to extend its political partnership and become a “permanent coalition” for regional elections in a bid to ensure regional administrations support the incoming central government.
But KIM members now appear on course to part ways and back different candidate pairs in several regions such as Banten despite successfully joining hands in the East Java and North Sumatra gubernatorial races.
Gerindra unveiled last week that it would endorse its own politician Andra Soni to run for Banten governor with House of Representatives lawmaker Achmad Dimyati Natakusumah from the rival Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) as his running mate.
The announcement came after Gerindra previously offered to pair Andra with fellow KIM member Golkar politician and former South Tangerang mayor Airin Rachmi Diany.
Gerindra executive Habiburokhman claimed that his party arrived at the decision after Golkar disagreed with Gerindra’s proposal to back Airin and Andra on a joint ticket.
“The fact that each region has its own set of characteristics and problems cannot be denied. In this situation, political parties can’t force each other [to support each other’s cause]. The important thing is, even if we are not together, we compete fairly,” Habiburokhman said.
Golkar remained unmoved by Gerindra’s decision to part ways and to encourage other KIM members to back Andra and Achmad, saying it would continue its search for potential partners to back Airin’s gubernatorial bid.
“Our priority since the beginning, of course, was to be with our colleagues in the KIM. But if that is not possible, we will certainly approach other political parties,” Golkar deputy chair Ahmad Doli Kurnia said on Tuesday.
Airin still has a high chance of securing a nomination for Banten governor from her own party despite having won the most votes in her electoral district in the race for House seats in February.
A similar disagreement also emerged over the South Tangerang mayoral race, with Gerindra recently endorsing its own politician and former deputy Jakarta governor Ahmad Riza Patria and stand-up comedian Marshel Widianto as his running mate.
This comes as Golkar continues to lobby a non-KIM member, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), to support the reelection bid of incumbent mayor Benyamin Davnie and his deputy Pilar Saga Ichsan.
Pro-Prabowo parties have yet to agree on who they will nominate in gubernatorial elections in West Java and Jakarta, both among the strategic provinces often seen as steppingstones to the presidency.
Golkar has expressed interest in endorsing its own politician and former popular West Java governor Ridwan Kamil for reelection in the province, but other coalition members, including Gerindra, prefer to support Ridwan to run for Jakarta governor instead.
Golkar is the only party that can field a candidate pair on its own in the November election in South Tangerang. There are no parties in West Java, Jakarta or Banten that meet the nomination threshold of controlling at least 20 percent of seats in respective local legislatures to be eligible to nominate a candidate pair in the November race alone without forming an alliance.
‘Differing interests’
Analyst Agung Baskoro said the idea of KIM members becoming allies in regional elections is unrealistic given “the different political landscapes at the national and regional levels”.
He said the “conflicting interests” between Golkar and Gerindra were the major cause of the series of unsuccessful KIM partnerships.
Another analyst, Ujang Komarudin, believes that KIM members might have been aware of the challenges of staying together for the November elections and thus prioritized forging partnerships only in densely populated or strategic provinces, such as West Java, Central Java, East Java, Jakarta and North Sulawesi.
“There may be regions where they know they need to put up a ‘united front’ to face contenders who are backed by opposition-leaning parties,” Ujang said. “But there may also be regions, particularly those with smaller populations, where they have decided to allow some competition between KIM candidates.”
Not in hurry
Democratic Party chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono said it was not easy to come up with joint tickets in regional races that everyone could agree on.
“The political landscapes of regional elections are often established before presidential elections take place. Therefore, it is not as simple as translating the composition of the [coalition for] presidential election into the regional elections,” he said.
Agus, however, dismissed suggestions that the plan to stay together for regional elections would fall apart, noting that all coalition members would need time to decide on the candidates they would support.
“For Jakarta, West Java and Central Java, we are still in the process of negotiating [candidates]. We continue to conduct opinion polls because any development is crucial for the Democrats to ultimately make a decision. Likewise with other parties in the KIM,” Agus said.