Prolific writer Goenawan Mohamad has resigned his membership of the National Mandate Party (PAN), since it declared its official support for the Gerindra Party's presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto.
Goenawan said he was very disappointed with the party’s decision. He further said PAN had veered from its original objective as a party and had become a political opportunist during the 2014 general election.
Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie says an agreement has been reached between his party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). He made the statement after a meeting with PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri on Jl. Teuku Umar, Jakarta, on Thursday.
“In principle, there is a similarity of views,” he said as quoted bytribunnews.com.
However, Aburizal said he had not yet made a decision on the formation of a coalition between Golkar and the PDI-P because such a decision should be made at a national leaders’ meeting (Rapimnas).
Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the presidential candidate nominated by a coalition comprising the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Golkar Party, says he will maintain the coalition without resorting to power sharing.
Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will be declared officially inactive as Jakarta governor as of June 1. On the same day, he will be replaced by his deputy, Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnawa, as acting Jakarta governor.
“In the existing law and government regulation [PP], it stipulates that any public official who is running for president must be inactive after the presidential candidacy is registered with the General Elections Commission (KPU),” said Ahok, after speaking with Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi in a meeting also attended by Jokowi on Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.
Democratic Party honor council chief Amir Syamsuddin says his party is eyeing Golkar Party figure Sultan Hamengkubuwono X as a presidential candidate in the 2014 presidential race.
He said the reason for sultan’s selection was that his electability could compete with the two other probable presidential candidates, namely the Gerindra Party’s Prabowo Subianto and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
The General Elections Commission (KPU) said on Tuesday that it was ready to fight a protracted legal battle at the Constitutional Court, now that all but one of the political parties that contested the 2014 legislative election had filed election disputes with the court.
KPU commissioner Arief Budiman said the commission would be establishing three teams of lawyers to represent the KPU in front of three panels of justices.
Researchers from the University of Indonesia’s (UI) Center for Political Studies found in a recent survey that women would be less represented among the next batch of lawmakers.
The center’s data showed that women may only achieve 14 percent of the total number of seats in the House of Representatives after the latest legislative election, compared to the 18 percent achieved in the 2009 election.
The think tank attributed the decline to internal party policies that push women to secure greater representation in the House.
The National Mandate Party (PAN) will hold a national executive meeting at its headquarters in Jakarta on Wednesday to officially announce its alliance with the Gerindra Party and the nomination of its chairman Hatta Rajasa as the running mate of Gerindra's presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.
Prabowo was scheduled to attend the meeting, PAN deputy chairman Drajad Wibowo said. "He will arrive at 1 p.m. We will then officially announce our Prabowo-Hatta pair to contest the upcoming July 9 presidential election," he said.
A public opinion poll conducted by pollster the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) has found that forty percent of voters have yet to decide who to vote for in the July presidential election.
LSI interviewed 2,400 respondents in 33 provinces with a margin of error of 2 percent from May 1 to 9, as reported by tribunnews.com.
"Based on various simulations, up to 40 percent of the general public are undecided on their choices for president or vice president," LSI researcher Adjie Alfaraby said on Tuesday.
Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa are set to be announced as a presidential-vice presidential ticket at the National Mandate Party's (PAN) national work meeting (Rakernas), which will take place at the party’s central executive board office in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Head of PAN's central executive board, Viva Yoga Mauladi, who is also the party’s campaign team, said party chairman Hatta would be the Gerindra Party's presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto’s, running mate in the July election.
The Constitutional Court said 702 electoral disputes, related to the legislative election, had been registered with the court, up from 628 in 2009.
“After tabulation and data verification, the court received 702 disputes, comprising 672 cases filed by national and local political parties and 30 submitted individually by Regional Representatives Council [DPD] member candidates,” court secretary-general Janedjri M. Gaffar said in Jakarta on Tuesday, as quoted by Antara news agency.
A survey commissioned by Indikator Politik Indonesia shows that the popularity of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) presidential candidate, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, has declined slightly.
Though Jokowi remains the frontrunner, the Indikator national survey, conducted between April 20-26 among 1,220 Indonesians eligible to vote with a margin of error of 2.9 percent, shows Prabowo Subianto has gained ground on the Jakarta governor.
People’s Synergy for Democracy in Indonesia (Sigma) director Said Salahudin says the coincidence in the submission of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s request for leave and Hatta Rajasa’s resignation letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono today is quite normal as the momentum of the presidential candidacies reaches its peak this week.
The political analyst further said political parties that had formed a coalition with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) would declare their support for Jokowi’s presidential bid on Wednesday.
For the umpteenth time, Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie’s presidential bid has drawn criticism from several senior officials of mass organizations affiliated with the party, who say his presidential candidacy is the reason why Golkar has yet to find a coalition partner.
Jakarta. Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa on Tuesday announced his resignation from the cabinet to run alongside Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.
“According to the regulations, public officials such as ministers have to resign from their positions if they want to join the presidential and vice presidential elections. I have received the president’s blessing,” Hatta said at a press conference in Jakarta.
He said he submitted his resignation yesterday and spoke to the president in person earlier today.
Jakarta. Dangdut singer and National Awakening Party (PKB) presidential hopeful Rhoma Irama has threatened to walk out on the party after it agreed to support Joko Widodo’s presidential campaign.
Jakarta. One-time military rivals and now presidential aspirants Prabowo Subianto and Wiranto may be about to form a coalition ahead of the July 9 election, an official has hinted.
“We have a coalition partner, we just need to wait for the right time to announce it,” Ali Kastela, a member of the central executive board of Wiranto’s People’s Conscience Party, or Hanura, said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is considering inviting the Hanura Party to join a coalition it has formed with two other parties – the NasDem Party and the National Awakening Party (PKB) – ahead of the upcoming presidential race.
PDI-P deputy secretary general Ahmad Basarah said his party had kept the option for a coalition with Hanura ‘on the table’ due to their mutual cooperation platform.
Women may get 79 or 14 percent of the total seats in the House of Representatives following April's legislative election; a figure that was lower than the historic high of 18 percent or 103 seats in the 2009 election, researchers said Monday.
This is despite more women candidates, accounting for 37 percent or 2,467 of the total 6,619 candidates, contesting the 560 House seats.
