Gerindra-PKB Still Opens Opportunities For Other Parties To Join KKIR To Determine The Name Of The Vice Presidential Candidate

Gerindra Chairman Prabowo Subianto (left) with PKB Chairman Muhaimin Iskandar alias Cak Imin (right) met in Kertanegara, Jakarta, June 18, 2022. (Between-Muhammad A)a

JAKARTA - The Gerindra Party together with PKB are open to other parties that want to join the Greater Indonesia Awakening Coalition (KKIR).

The daily chairman of the Gerindra Party DPP, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, said that after the coalition matured, the name of the candidate for vice president (cawapres) would only be determined.

"Although the agreement between Gerindra and PKB, the name of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates will be determined by Pak Prabowo and Cak Imin, but of course, we will also wait for the coalition to mature with several parties," said Dasco at the Senayan Parliament Complex, Jakarta, Tuesday, June 13, which was confiscated by Antara.

Although he has not been able to convey which political parties want to join the Gerindra-PKB coalition, Dasco does not rule out the possibility that the political parties that have the opportunity to close to the KKIR are the Golkar Party.

"If we talk about a coalition, maybe not only with PKB, yes. We can also add coalitions with many parties, with Golkar and others," he said.

He said that so far his coalition has focused on exploring and communicating intensively with several political parties that will move closer to the KKIR.

"Currently, we are more focused on communicating with political parties, which of course will jointly determine with Pak Prabowo and Cak Imin about the vice president," he said.

Previously, Thursday, June 8, the Daily Chairperson of the Gerindra Party DPP, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, assessed that the PKB statement which stated that it was open to evaluating KKIR if it had not declared that the presidential and vice presidential candidates in June would not be a threat, but an input.

"I think what Pak Jazilul (Waketum of PKB Jazilul Fawaid) said was not a threat because it was one input," said Dasco at the parliament complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Thursday.

As for Wednesday, June 8, PKB Deputy Chairperson Jazilul Fawaid said he would open up the possibility to evaluate the coalition that was established with the Gerindra Party if the presidential and vice-presidential candidates had not been announced until June.

"If not (announced) then think it's better to neutralize the PKB again so that they can think more sanely, evaluate it," said Jazilul at the parliament complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Wednesday.

He said that input for the KKIR presidential and vice presidential candidates to be announced in June came from figures to kiai at PKB.

"I also received a lot of input from several figures and kiai at PKB, ulama, so please decide it immediately, suggest to Mr. Muhaimin 'Please decide in June'," he said.

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.