PAN, PKB may support me, says Ahok

JAKARTA. Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama claims that the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) have hinted they will show support for his candidacy in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election.

The NasDem Party and the Hanura Party have previously expressed their support for the incumbent.

Ahok said he had met with PAN chairman Zulkifli Hasan on the matter. “We met Pak Zulkifli. He wanted to offer his support,” he said as reported by tribunnews.com on Thursday.

PAN, however, would implement its own mechanism to recruit a gubernatorial candidate and would hold a survey before declaring party support, Ahok said, referring to his talk with Zulkifli.

Ahok added that the PKB would also use a similar internal mechanism regarding candidate selection.

Ahok has declared he will run as an independent candidate in the 2017 election and has appointed Heru Budi Hartono, a civil servant working for the Jakarta administration, as his deputy candidate after being unable to name his current deputy, Djarot Saiful Hidayat, because of a lack of permission from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Currently, Ahok’s supporters, grouped as Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok), are collecting photocopies of Jakarta residents' identity cards to support his bid. Under the current law, Ahok needs to collect about 533,000 photocopies of IDs to be allowed to take part in the gubernatorial election as an independent.

With additional support from the two political parties, the number of City Council seats held by political parties supporting Ahok would reach 23, which is enough to set up a coalition to support the incumbent, if Teman Ahok fails to collect the required number of ID copies.

Ahok said he had also met with Hanura chairman Wiranto, who had a similar vision and mission to him. “I am a good friend of Pak Wiranto. We have met with him several times,” Ahok added. (bbn)