After Receiving Prabowo's Visit, Grace Natalie PSI: Our Kompas In Support Is Pak Jokowi

Deputy Chairman of the PSI Board of Trustees Grace Natalie (center) when delivering a press statement after welcoming the visit of the General Chairperson of the Gerindra Party Prabowo Subianto/ANTARA

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) Board of Trustees Grace Natalie said that her party was guided by President Joko Widodo regarding determining the support of the 2024 presidential candidate (candidate). "So, our compass today in determining support is Pak Jokowi," said Grace after receiving a visit from Prabowo and the Gerindra Party group at the PSI DPP Office, Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, August 2. Grace said PSI was upright with Jokowi because her party wanted Indonesian leaders to continue the 7th Presidential government programs. "Nine years has been devoted to building stakeholders for development. If later the next president does not want to build on a stake, then we will waste energy, waste time, waste money," he said. Grace has not disclosed who will be the presidential candidate who will be supported by PSI. He said that there are still mechanisms that need to be followed before officially announcing PSI's political support in the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres). "When will it be announced? Just wait. We still have Kopdarnas (National Land Coffee) on August 22," said Grace. However, he referred to Prabowo as a person who was committed to continuing Jokowi's government program. "We see that Pak Prabowo's good intentions are committed to continuing what Pak Jokowi has fought for, and that certainly makes us relieved and happy that Indonesia will be bright in the future," he said. Furthermore, during the meeting, PSI also handed over souvenirs in the form of paintings bearing the words "Indonesia Solid", complete with images of Prabowo and Jokowi hugging. "The painting was an inspiration from how we saw the last election being highly polarized, but in the end it ended very well," added Grace. He said the painting depicted a beauty if all parties went hand in hand for the good of Indonesia. "Pak Jokowi as the winner of the election wants to open up. Pak Prabowo, who has not won in the last election, but wants to humiliate himself into Pak Jokowi's cabinet for the good of Indonesia," continued Grace. To note, the registration of prospective presidential candidates (candidates) and vice presidential candidates (cawapres) is scheduled for October 19 to November 25, 2023. Based on Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning the Election of presidential and vice presidential candidates, a political party or coalition of political parties participating in the election is proposed that meet the requirements for obtaining seats of at least 20 percent of the total seats in the DPR, or obtaining 25 percent of the nationally valid votes 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. It is also possible that the candidate pair will be promoted by a political party or a combination of parties participating in the 2019 Election with a total valid vote acquisition of at least 34,992,703 votes.