Golkar says it won’t nominate Kalla as VP in 2019 election

PARTAI GOLONGAN KARYA (GOLKAR) - JAKARTA. The Golkar party has confirmed that it will not nominate Vice President Jusuf Kalla to run in the 2019 presidential election.

Golkar’s party affairs coordinator, Ibnu Munzir, said none of its members wanted to propose Kalla as a vice presidential candidate in the election.

“We have one voice. Whatever the party’s decision is, we will follow it,” said Ibnu as quoted by tempo.co on Monday.

Golkar has nominated its party chairman, Airlangga Hartarto, to run on the same ticket as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who seeks reelection in 2019.

Ibnu highlighted the matter when asked about rumors on the possible nomination of Kalla and Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono of the Democratic Party.

Rumors of a Kalla and Agus ticket emerged after the Dems revealed their plan to form a third coalition for the 2019 presidential election.

The rumor was strengthened after Kalla and Dems chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met at the latter’s residence last week.

A Kalla-Agus ticket continued to be discussed. “I asked Pak JK and he said there were no political talks in the meeting. He said it was just a meeting between a former president and his deputy”, Ibnu said, referring to Kalla by his initials.

Dems politician Jansen Sitindaon said separately that his party was in favor of a Kalla-Agus ticket option as reflected by the party’s internal poll.

The poll showed that nearly 90 percent of its members wanted a third option besides President Jokowi and Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto in the upcoming election.