Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, the daily chairman of Prabowo Subianto’s Gerindra Party, ensured that the so-called KIM Plus (the expanded coalition of Prabowo-Gibran) will pair Ahmad Luthfi with Kaesang Pangarep, the youngest son of the outgoing President Jokowi, in this year’s gubernatorial election in Central Java. Prior to Dasco’s statement, Nasdem, a member of KIM Plus, already gave its endorsement to Luthfi-Kaesang.

Pretty much as predicted, Bahlil Lahadalia becomes the sole candidate of the new Golkar Party chairman. Bahlil, who has just been appointed as the new Minister of Energy & Mineral Resources (ESDM), will be crowned as the new chairman of Golkar in the Party’s chairmanship congress today (Aug. 20). So, how about the outgoing President Jokowi and his eldest son, Vice President-elect Gibran?

Bahlil Lahadalia, who will likely soon be elected chairman of Golkar Party, is scheduled to be appointed new minister of energy & mineral resources, replacing Arifin Tasrif, a professional known close to PDI-P, the largest political party in the country.

Hasto Kristiyanto, the secretary general of PDIP, played an audio recording in front of journalists on Aug. 17, in which he claimed that the outgoing President Jokowi wants to use law enforcement agencies to intimidate people. Later, it is found out that the circulated audio recording played by Hasto was a small part of Jokowi’s speech delivered during the National Coordination Meeting (Rakornas) of the Central Government and the Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkopimda) from five years ago in 2019.

Muhaimin Iskandar has confirmed the joining of PKB into Prabowo Subianto’s coalition on Sunday (Aug. 18). PKB, which is the largest Islamic party strongly affiliated to the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), will be present today (Aug. 19) in the declaration event of Ridwan Kamil, a Jakarta governor candidate from Prabowo’s coalition.

Three more parties (Nasdem, PPP & Perindo) have just joined Prabowo’s coalition. It looks like PKB and PKS will soon join the coalition as well. With this development, it is almost certain that Anies Baswedan won’t be able to get a ticket to run in this year’s gubernatorial election in Jakarta.

PPP, a small Islamic party that is strongly affiliated to the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), and Perindo, another small party controlled by media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibjo, are following Nasdem, a political party led by media mogul Surya Paloh, to join Prabowo’s coalition and to support the next administration. Prabowo is now waiting for PKB and PKS to join his coalition as well.

PDIP, the largest political party in the country, officially announced its pick for this year’s simultaneous regional elections in an event held at the Party’s new headquarters in Jalan Diponegoro, Menteng, Central Jakarta on Wednesday (Aug. 14). The Party, however, has yet to announce its pick for gubernatorial elections in key provinces such as Jakarta, West Java, East Java, Central Java, and Banten.

The matriarch of PDIP Megawati Soekarnoputri addressed many issues during her speech on Wednesday (Aug. 14) when PDIP announcing its regional head candidates for this year’s simultaneous regional elections. One of them is about the leadership of PDIP, in which she said that she will delay her retirement and continue leading the Party.