ANN/THE STAR – Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has accepted a request by his Gerindra Party to run for re-election in the next presidential race, a move that sets early the playing field for the 2029 poll and puts a greater demand for loyalty from his supporting political parties.
In an extraordinary congress held at the president’s private residence in Bogor, West Java, Gerindra’s executives and members agreed to nominate Prabowo to run for re-election in the next presidential race, according to the party’s secretary-general Ahmad Muzani.
“The Congress asked Pak Prabowo to run again as a presidential candidate… All Gerindra Party members in Indonesia will continue to provide full support for and have faith in Pak Prabowo for the next five years,” Ahmad said in a press statement.
Prabowo, according to Ahmad, responded to the party’s nomination with, “Insya Allah”, noting, however, that the president “asked for time to complete his duties as president and fulfill his promises to the people”.
Thursday’s event was initially planned as the party’s annual leadership meeting, but party executives and members attending the event unanimously agreed to turn it into an extraordinary congress, according to Gerindra executive chair Sufmi Dasco Ahmad.
Thursday’s event also concluded with the Gerindra Party unanimously reappointing Prabowo as chairman, mandating the retired Army general, who has led Gerindra since 2014, to continue to lead the nationalist party until 2030.
“The congress participants saw that Prabowo was still very much needed in providing strategic direction for the party,” Ahmad said.
The extraordinary congress was part of a series of Gerindra’s 17th anniversary celebrations, which concluded yesterday at the Sentul International Convention Centre.
Prominent figures, including former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, and party leaders of the ruling coalition have been invited to the event.
Gerindra’s move in nominating Prabowo as presidential candidate only months after he began his first term could be seen as a “fait accompli” for his ruling coalition members to “lock up support”, said senior researcher of Indikator Politik Indonesia Kennedy Muslim.
“(The nomination) could be to prevent key figures, particularly leaders of pro-government parties, from manoeuvring ahead of the 2029 presidential election,” given that the Constitutional Court had made it easier for contenders to enter the presidential race,” Kennedy told The Jakarta Post.
He was referring to the Constitutional Court’s decision to remove the steep threshold for nominating presidential candidates that was based on the share of House of Representatives seats or the popular vote a political party or a coalition of parties won in the previous legislative election.
This enables any political party, big or small, which is eligible to run in the 2029 general election, to nominate a presidential candidate.
Researcher of the National Innovation and Research Agency (BRIN), Wasisto Raharjo believed Prabowo’s early nomination would not have an immediate effect on the current political constellation, given that “all political energy is now directed toward consolidating the central and regional levels after the budget cuts”, Wasisto said.
It could, however, serve as a loyalty test for the ruling coalition to see whether members will continue to support his presidency over the next five years, Wasisto said.
Announcing support for Prabowo’s re-election campaign could help the president consolidate early support and “save political costs and time”, thus allowing him to focus on executing his programmes and policies during the political years ahead of the 2029 elections, Wasisto added
A day after his nomination, the president hosted a meeting with party leaders and key figures of the ruling coalition, again at his private residence, where, according to attendees, Prabowo proposed the idea of making the coalition permanent.
“Pak Prabowo suggested a permanent coalition. He asked for unity to be the main key to government,” leader of the National Awakening Party (PKB) Muhaimin Iskandar said after the meeting in a video statement released by his team.
Muhaimin did not specify whether the permanent coalition would continue its partnership for the 2029 presidential election, but stressed that the PKB welcomed the president’s suggestion as it would “strengthen and accelerate” the nation’s development.
