Around 170 retired high-ranking military and police officers that are associated with the so-called Forum Purnawirawan Perwira Tinggi TNI/POLRI untuk Perubahan (FP3) declared their endorsement for Anies Baswedan. Interestingly, they promoted Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY), the eldest son of the sixth President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), to become Anies’ running mate and they also pushed Anies to soon announce the running mate.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has visited Papua Island on Thursday (July 6). This is the second time Jokowi visited Papua in the last three months. The visit is worth highlighting in light of the next year’s elections.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, who is now the deputy chairman of Golkar Party, visited Yogyakarta on Wednesday (July 5), where he gave a speech in the Gadjah Mada University (UGM), the alma mater of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and presidential hopeful from the ruling party PDIP Ganjar Pranowo. The visit is worth highlighting because Ridwan has been rumored as one of the potential running mate candidates for Ganjar.

The Secretary General of the ruling party PDIP, Hasto Kristiyanto, told the press on Tuesday (July 4) that Megawati Soekarnoputri will announce the running mate for Ganjar Pranowo in September 2023. With this statement, we can safely say that the race for becoming Ganjar’s running mate is still wide open. 

The disgraced former ICT Minister Johnny G Plate, through his lawyer, conveyed his exception on Tuesday (July 4) in a trial of the BAKTI case, the case of alleged corruption related to a project at the ICT Ministry that is estimated to have caused a state loss more than Rp8 trillion. In his exception, Johnny Plate rejected the prosecutors’ indictment and he ridiculously argued that the BAKTI project was an instruction from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, not his own initiative. Johnny is also former secretary general of Nasdem, a political party led by media mogul Surya Paloh. Let’s talk a bit about his exception and its implications to Paloh and Nasdem Party.

Prabowo Subianto, a presidential hopeful from Gerindra Party, had an exclusive interview with Najwa Shihab in which the retired general addressed many important issues, including about Ganjar Pranowo, whom he wished to become his running mate in the next year’s presidential election. In fact, Prabowo stated that he leaves the door open for the possibility of running with Ganjar if the Central Java Governor is willing to become a running mate.

Ganjar Pranowo, a presidential hopeful from the ruling party PDIP, met with Sandiaga Uno in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia before his departure for Indonesia after completing a Hajj pilgrimage. Sandi, who left Prabowo’s Gerindra Party to join the Islamic party PPP, is one of the potential candidates who has been mentioned by PDIP to become Ganjar’s running mate.