<\/b>The ruling party PDIP have\u00a0floated the idea\u00a0of nominating the former governor of Jakarta\u00a0Djarot Saiful Hidayat and the popular Mayor of Surabaya Tri Rismaharini as governor candidates for North Sumatera and East Kalimantan respectively. One might see this as a joke, but the people\u00a0confirming the news, given their status, indicate that this news is rather serious. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Secretary General of PDIP Hasto Kristiyanto was the one who confirmed the news that\u00a0the party was considering to nominate Risma in the\u00a0East Kalimantan gubernatorial race.\u00a0Hasto, however, said that Risma\u2019s priority was\u00a0to stay in Surabaya. As for Djarot being considered for North Sumatera, it was Djarot himself who confirmed the news. Djarot even said that he was ready for the opportunity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It looks like PDIP is testing the water here. They may want to measure the public’s response on the idea. Risma, however, had refused the opportunity to run in East Java’s gubernatorial race. Her accepting East Kalimantan sounds like an odd possibility. Then again, PDIP have\u00a0good alternative for the province anyway.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Police Insp. Gen. Safaruddin previously said that he was optimistic in his chance at securing\u00a0PDIP\u2019s endorsement to run\u00a0for office in East Kalimantan. If PDIP were to nominate Safarudin, the Party could pair him up with their own cadre Awang Ferdian Hidayat. Ferdian, a PDIP lawmaker at the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission VII, is the son of the current East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek Ishak, who is also a key leader of the Golkar Party in the province. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since the Corruption Eradication Commission\u2019s (KPK) have\u00a0named\u00a0the Regent of Kutai Kartanegara Rita Widyasari a graft suspect, the pair could very well earn some votes from Golkar. This would either divide Golkar or bring them into a coalition with PDIP. Either way would be a\u00a0good thing for PDIP. PDIP have\u00a0said that they are in talks with Golkar and PPP.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Djarot, it is indeed possible to see him run\u00a0for office in North Sumatera given that his party colleagues, including Maruarar Sirait, who was\u00a0mentioned as a\u00a0potential candidates for North Sumatera, support the idea. PDIP, moreover, do\u00a0not yet have a strong figure to endorse in\u00a0the province.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, PDIP need the backing of at least one small political party to\u00a0provide their candidate with a ticket into the race\u2014PDIP are\u00a0the second largest party in North Sumatera but, they only control 16% of the provincial legislative council (DPRD), which is 4% less than the nomination threshold.\u00a0Furthermore, should they move forward with the plan to nominate Djarot, PDIP would have to find a local figure with extensive network in the province to complement<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, two gubernatorial pairs have\u00a0already secured a ticket to run in the North Sumatera race: incumbent Governor Tengku Erry Nuradi and his running mate <\/span>Ngogesa Sitepu; and The Commander of the Army\u2019s Strategic Reserves Command (Pangkostrad) Lt. Gen. Edy Rahmayadi\u00a0and his running mate Musa Rajeckshah (Ijeck).<\/span><\/p>\n

The incumbent has\u00a0the backing of a coalition of Golkar, Nasdem, PPP, PKPI, and PKB. The coalition controls 32% of the DPRD\u2019s seats. Edy Rahmayadi, meanwhile, is endorsed by a coalition of PAN, PKS, and Prabowo Subianto\u2019s Gerindra.<\/span> Combined, the coalition control 28% of the DPRD\u2019s seats. So, it\u2019s clear that these two gubernatorial pairs are not easy competitors to beat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some\u00a0believe that Djarot has a chance at winning given Jokowi\u2019s popularity in the province. In the 2014 presidential election, as we know, Jokowi won the province with a landslide victory after\u00a0securing 3,494,835 votes or around 55.23%, whereas his rival Prabowo Subianto\u00a0earned 2,831,514 votes (44.76%). Not to mention Jokowi\u2019s hard work in\u00a0pushing for massive infrastructure development\u00a0in the province and set the Toba Lake as one of 10 new emerging tourism destinations in the country. Jokowi, moreover, has strong bond with North Sumatera following the marriage of his daughter Kahiyang Ayu with Bobby Afif Nasution and the fact that his right-hand man General (ret) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan is also a Bataknese. <\/span><\/p>\n

PDIP might bet\u00a0on said\u00a0aspects when considering to nominate Djarot for\u00a0North Sumatera. But time will tell whether whether it’s a safe bet, and whether it’s a fruitful experiment. That said, we will soon learn of<\/span>\u00a0PDIP’s pick not just for North Sumatera and East Kalimantan but also for other important provinces such as West Java. Central Java, and Papua today (Jan. 4) as the Party is scheduled to announce the names.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Haryanto Suharman<\/span><\/p>\n

Copying, redistributing, and retransmitting this article is a violation of copyrights.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ruling party PDIP have floated the idea of nominating the former governor of Jakarta Djarot Saiful Hidayat and the popular Mayor of Surabaya Tri Rismaharini as governor candidates for North Sumatera and East Kalimantan respectively. One might see this as a joke, but the people confirming the news, given their status, indicate that this news is rather serious. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":59055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[232,2384,2383,190,1804],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62275"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62283,"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62275\/revisions\/62283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yosefardi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}