Jokowi’s mate to be announced before May 20

JAKARTA. Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secretary general Tjahjo Kumolo says the running mate of presidential candidate Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who is being nominated by the party and its coalition partners the Hanura Party, the NasDem Party and the National Awakening Party (PKB), will be announced before Tuesday.

Tjahjo said in Semarang on Sunday that his party would announce its vice-presidential candidate before the deadline for registration of presidential and vice-presidential candidates at the General Elections Commission (KPU), which falls on May 20.

He added that Jokowi himself as presidential candidate, accompanied by PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri and leaders of the party’s coalition partners, would announce the name of his vice-presidential candidate.

Tjahjo said based on the Law No.42/2008 on presidential and vice-presidential elections, a presidential and vice-presidential candidate pair can be nominated by a political party or a coalition of political parties that managed to secure at least 25 percent of the vote or win 20 percent of seats at the House of Representatives.

He added that the choice of who would become the vice-presidential candidate to accompany Jokowi in the upcoming presidential race was a crucial and strategic matter and would determine the future of Indonesia as a nation.

“The deliberation of a vice-presidential candidate will be conducted by Pak Jokowi thoroughly and carefully and will involve deep consideration by many parties, particularly from Pak Jokowi himself and Ibu Megawati, and will be discussed with leaders of our coalition partners such as the NasDems, PKB and Hanura,” said Tjahjo as quoted by Antara news agency.

Separately, Jokowi rejected speculation that there were several new potential vice-presidential candidates being discussed.

"As I have repeatedly said, there are now only two candidates," he said on the sidelines of a visit to Subang, West Java, as reported by tempo.co.

The two candidates are former vice president Jusuf Kalla and Corruption Eradication Commission chairman Abraham Samad. (fss/ebf)