Anies Candidacy Hangs on Political Lobbying For Coalition

The NasDem Party, Democratic Party and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) have yet to agree on a figure for vice presidential candidate. The PKS has proposed Ahmad Heryawan, while the Democrats want Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono.

KOMPAS

The Nasdem Party wants a coalition with the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party to be declared on November 10, 2022. However, this desire has not materialized.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS —NasDem, the Democrats and the PKS seemingly need to intensify their communication to build a common perspective on several issues before moving ahead with their coalition plan. NasDem had sought to declare the coalition on Thursday (11/10/2022), but its hopes did not materialize because the three political parties still faced differences in the nomination of vice presidential candidate, in addition to their expected alignment in coalition platform, governing vision and campaign task force.

In fact, political lobbying among the three political parties had been forged long before NasDem named former Jakarta governor Anies Rasyid Baswedan as prospective presidential candidate on 3 October.

NasDem Party deputy chairman Ahmad Ali said the proposal for the 10 November coalition declaration with the Democrats and the PKS had been put forward by his party, which would have heralded its 11 November anniversary commemoration. "We had hoped the announcement of the coalition would have become the most beautiful gift for the NasDem Party’s anniversary," he said on the sidelines of an internal consolidation meeting on technical guidance in Jakarta on Thursday. It was attended by party’s cadres who are members of the House of Representatives or Regional Legislative Council.

However, the proposal failed to obtain approval from the Democrats and the PKS. Ahmad said NasDem did not object to their disapproval out of respect for each other’s political policies on mechanisms and procedures.

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PKS spokesperson Muhammad Kholid said the party had not consented to NasDem's proposal for the 10 November declaration because it would have been too early. He said there were still many things to be mutually agreed upon, including the vice-presidential candidacy, the coalition platform, governing vision and the portioning of campaign tasks in line with their win mission in the presidential election.

The PKS wanted the unveiling of the coalition to be carried after those issues had been settled for the sake of a strongly built alliance that would not be easily shaken throughout.

Democratic Party spokesperson Herzaky Mahendra Putra concurred with his PKS counterpart, saying they were concerned about resolving the potentially fractious issues before the coalition could immediately embark on the campaigning without distractions that might arise later. He reaffirmed the urgency to settle issues regarding vision, mission and program that would pave way for election success given “high public expectations on the tripartite coalition”. He said the Democrats wanted to offer a candidate who would be able to act on the public's expectations.

The three political parties reportedly still communicating intensely to build an understanding among them.

Regarding its vice-presidential candidate, the PKS has pitched party advisory council deputy chairman Ahmad Heryawan as a running mate for Anies. The Democrats put forward chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono to be paired with Anies. Meanwhile, NasDem, as one among the three political parties having first announce its support for Anies, is leaving the decision over the choice of vice-presidential candidate to him.

The called-off event on Thursday does not necessarily mean that the plan for a coalition is faltering, with the three political parties reportedly still communicating intensely to build an understanding among them.

Negotiation

KOMPAS/INGKI RINALDI

Firman Noor,

Firman Noor, a senior political researcher with the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), saw that the three political parties were still trying to negotiate terms before agreeing on a coalition. "There is only one problem, which is who will be the vice-presidential candidate," he said.

He said it was understandable for the Democrats and the PKS to push ahead with their respective figures to become the candidate for vice president. Both parties deemed it a more realistic chance for their cadres’ candidacy in the coalition they are about to establish rather than in another coalition axis that already had several candidacy options.

It would be also difficult for NasDem, according to Firman, to get political parties other than the Democrats and the PKS as coalition partners with it promoting Anies as presidential candidate given his perceived different political views from the other coalition axes.

Firman said their aspired coalition plan being put on hold would carry risk of Anies' candidacy falling out, while NasDem’s 10.3 percent of seats in the House of Representatives did not give it the required threshold to nominate presidential and vice-presidential candidates without joining a coalition. (PDS/SYA/NIA/BOW)

This article was translated by Musthofid.