Today, March 3, the ruling party PDIP is expected to announce its choice of regional head candidates who will compete in the 2020 simultaneous regional elections, including who will become the mayoral candidate for Surakarta.

Today’s announcement would be the second round. PDIP had previously announced its choice of regional head candidates on Feb. 19. The Chairperson of PDIP Megawati Soekarnoputri named 49 pairs of regional head candidates from the Party.

The anticipation is on who the PDIP would choose as its regional head candidate for Surakarta. There are two options left for PDIP. The first is Gibran, who has just joined the Party in September 2019. The second option is Achmad Purnomo and his running mate Teguh Prakosa, who are Gibran’s seniors in PDIP. The pair have secured the endorsement of PDIP’s Surakarta branch. The Surakarta Mayor FX Rudy Hadyatmo (who is also the chairman of PDIP’s Surakarta branch) is among the supporters of Achmad Purnomo-Teguh Prakosa.

Should PDIP endorse Gibran as a mayoral candidate, the Party may give a running mate position to Achmad Purnomo (who is currently vice mayor of Surakarta). In this case, the pair of Surakarta mayor and vice mayor candidates from PDIP will be Gibran and Purnomo. That way Megawati and her PDIP can avoid internal conflict in the Party’s Surakarta branch. They would not want the Party’s votes divided. But the question is whether Purnomo is willing to settle with a running mate position. If Purnomo refuses, the position could be given to Teguh Prakosa, who is the speaker of the Surakarta city’s legislative council (DPRD). In this case, Gibran would run in the race with Teguh Prakosa as his running mate.

In another scenario, PDIP may decide to endorse Achmad Purnomo as mayoral candidate and pair him with Gibran as his running mate. This is also a win-win solution. That way Megawati and her PDIP can calm down the supporters of Purnomo at the Party’s Surakarta branch, including the current Surakarta Mayor FX Rudy Hadyatmo, and also Gibran’s supporters. But the same question for Gibran is whether he’s willing to settle with a running mate position, and whether Teguh Prakosa will accept for not getting any position.

Last but not least, the scenario is PDIP deciding to endorse Achmad Purnomo-Teguh Prakosa pair rather than Gibran. Gibran’s loyalty would be thus tested. Would he accept PDIP’s decision and remain loyal to the Party? Time will tell. Gibran earlier said that he would accept whatever PDIP’s decision would be. He also promised to remain loyal to PDIP and not to run in the city election as a candidate of other political parties or as an independent candidate. So, let’s see whether he keeps his words.

PDIP’s chosen candidate will compete with an independent candidate in the race. There were two pairs of independent candidates registered: Muhammad Ali a.k.a Abah Ali and his running mate Achmad Abu Jazid a.k.a Gus Amak; and Bagyo Wahyono and his running mate FX Supardjo. Muhammad Ali-Achmad Abu Jazid pair, however, failed to pass the verification process due to lack of support. Bagyo Wahyono-FX Supardjo, meanwhile, passed the verification.

Bagyo and Supardjo are Jokowi’s supporters. Both of them even admitted that they’re endorsed by the so-called Tikus Pithi Hanata Baris, which is known as one of Jokowi’s volunteer groups in the 2019 presidential election. Considering this affiliation, we will not be surprised if Gibran or Purnomo defeat the said independent pair easily and win the race by a landslide.

By Haryanto Suharman

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