Riau Governor Syamsuar declared support for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s reelection bid at his recent inauguration at the State Palace.
In the 2018 regional election, Syamsuar, a member of National Mandate Party (PAN), was endorsed by PAN and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), two members of the coalition that has endorsed Jokowi’s challenger Prabowo Subianto in the 2019 presidential race.
Syamsuar said after his inauguration on Wednesday that he decided to throw his support behind Jokowi because of his accomplishments in infrastructure development and agrarian reforms over the last four years. He expressed hope that Jokowi would continue his programs in the next term, should he be reelected.
“I hope he [Jokowi] can [be President] for two terms,” Syamsuar told reporters.
Responding to Syamsuar’s decision, the PKS warned the governor not to use his power to influence people in the province to vote for Jokowi. “You, as a governor, have no authority to ask the people to follow your political choice,” PKS executive Hidayat Nur Wahid said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, PAN secretary-general Eddy Soeparno said he expected that Syamsuar would not join Jokowi’s campaign team.
“He’s not an executive in the party. It’s his right to endorse [Jokowi] but we request that he does not join the campaign team, so that he can focus on his gubernatorial duties,” Eddy said.
Syamsuar’s support has added to the long list of regional leaders who have declared support for the incumbent. Recently, the campaign team of candidate pair Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin claimed a total of 30 governors and 359 mayors and regents across the country had declared support for the pair.
Among the regional leaders are 10 mayors and regents from West Sumatra as well as West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil. Both West Sumatra and West Java are both conservative provinces widely known as strongholds of the Prabowo camp. Support for Jokowi has also come from Papua Governor Lukas Enembe, a Democratic Party politician. The party is in the opposition camp endorsing Prabowo.
So far, only four governors have declared support for the Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno candidate pair, namely Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, Bangka Belitung’s Erzaldi Rosman Djohan, East Kalimantan’s Isran Noor and Central Sulawesi Governor Longki Djanggola.
A number of district heads have also made public declarations of support for the incumbent, despite their positions as public servants. Last week, Prabowo’s campaign team reported 15 district heads in Makassar, South Sulawesi, to the local chapter of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) for allegedly campaigning for Jokowi in a video.
“In the footage, which runs for 1 minute and 27 seconds, there is a part that certainly depicts [their] support for a certain pair,” legal team head Edy Arsyam said as quoted by Antara.
According to the 2017 Election Law, civil servants, including Indonesian Police and Indonesian Military (TNI) officers, are not allowed to be involved in political activities, including running for election or campaigning.
Meanwhile, for governor, mayors and regents, Article 281 of the law states they can take part in an election campaign only if they take leave and do not use state facilities.
KPU commissioner Hasyim Asy’ari has warned regional leaders to be careful and avoid making any political gestures when they are not campaigning.
“For example, if they raise their hands and make a gesture with one finger or two fingers, which may be associated with either candidate pair’s ballot number, when they’re not on leave, they can be charged for an election violation,” Hasyim said.
Nurul Fitri Ramadhani
Source:https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/02/23/new-governor-declares-sup...
