NasDem Calls Luhut And Surya Paloh Meeting Discussing Candidates For Anies' Assistance

Chairman of the NasDem Party DPP Sugeng Suparwoto. (ANTARA)

Chairman of the NasDem Party DPP Sugeng Suparwoto said that the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan discussed the potential vice presidential candidate (cawapres) to accompany Anies Baswedan as a presidential candidate (candidate) from the Change Coalition for Unity (KPP).

"That's right, Pak Luhut also endorsed, say if your language endorsed this, endorsed it, and so on, and it became an extraordinary discussion," said Sugeng at the Change Secretariat, quoted by ANTARA Friday, May 5.

Nevertheless, he said, a small team or a team of eight KPPs had narrowed five names as candidates for vice president, which Anies Baswedan thought would be duet with.

"It has narrowed to five names, only who? Wow, that's the team that is working and we agreed to hand it over to the presidential candidate (Anies Baswedan)," he said.

In addition, he said that Luhut and Paloh agreed to create a conducive situation in building an honest and fair 2024 election competition, including respecting each other's political decisions related to the presidential candidate being promoted.

"Each student respects political decisions, including we apologize, in this case Mr. Luhut respects what has been decided by Mr. Surya, in this case NasDem, in the context of contestation, as well as regarding Mr. Anies," he said.

Sugeng said that the two figures also considered that the government should not show partiality to certain candidates, so that they are balanced and do not cause unnecessary dynamics.

"The point is that there is an atmosphere that is trying to be built for the good of this country, this nation in the future," he added.

However, he said that Paloh emphasized that his party would continue to support the success of President Joko Widodo's administration until the end of his leadership in 2024.

"Because we used to carry the leadership of Pak Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin. I think it was clear and it was emphasized once again in front of Pak Luhut," he said.

Previously, the Chairman of the NasDem Party, Surya Paloh, held a meeting with the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan at Wisma Nusantara, Jakarta, Friday afternoon.

Based on the schedule set by the General Election Commission (KPU) of the Republic of Indonesia, the registration of prospective presidential and vice presidential candidates is scheduled to start from October 19 to November 25, 2023.

As regulated in Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections (UU Pemilu), pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates are proposed by political parties or coalitions of political parties participating in the election who meet the requirements for obtaining seats of at least 20 percent of the total number of seats in the DPR or obtaining 25 percent of valid votes nationally in the previous election for members of the DPR.

Currently, there are 575 seats in parliament so that pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 2024 presidential election must have at least 115 seats in the DPR RI. In addition, candidate pairs can also be promoted by political parties or a combination of political parties participating in the 2019 Election with a total valid vote acquisition of at least 34,992,703 votes.