Denying Golkar Leaving Coalition, Airlangga: KIM Is Still Very Solid

JAKARTA - Golkar Party Chairman Airlangga Hartarto firmly denied that the Golkar Party left the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM) because of the different choices of regional head candidates for the 2024 Regional Head Election (Pilkada) in several strategic areas. According to Airlangga, KIM is still solid to date.

"No, there is no (Golkar leaving KIM), KIM is still very solid," said Airlangga at the JS Luwansa Hotel, Kuningan, Jakarta, Tuesday, July 16.

According to Airlangga, it is natural that there are differences in the choice of candidates between the KIM party. According to Airlangga, these differences are options that need to be considered together.

"We will still decide this before 27 (August). So all options are open," said Airlangga.

Previously, the Secretary General of the National Mandate Party (PAN) DPP Eddy Soeparno ensured that parties that are members of the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM) remained solid in the nomination of regional heads in the 2024 Simultaneous Pilkada. Especially, said Eddy, in strategic areas, such as Jakarta, West Java, Banten, Central Java, East Java, and North Sumatra.

"There is no split, I assure you, I am among the secretary general's friends, we are talking very actively to regulate this election problem," said Eddy Soeparno last Monday.

Eddy said it would be natural if there were still differences in the candidates for governor and deputy governor who were promoted by the KIM party. The reason is, many parties are members of KIM and four of them are in parliament, namely Gerindra, Golkar, PAN, and Democrats. Each party, he said, carries its candidate to run as a candidate for governor or future deputy governor candidate.

"If it's a split, I'll make sure it's not, but in KIM there are four parties that sit in parliament, while the regional elections only have cagub and cawagub, only two. So two of them will definitely be left behind, now here we need internal discussions where roughly later each of the members in KIM can propose cadres, if they can't be in Jakarta, maybe in West Java, now this is what is now being discussed," explained Eddy.

Eddy gave an example, in the Jakarta gubernatorial election, Golkar carried a number of cadres, such as Ridwan Kamil and Jusuf Hamka. Meanwhile, PAN, he said, encouraged Zita Anjani. Likewise in West Java, Gerindra encouraged Dedy Mulyadi, while PAN encouraged Bima Arya Sugiarto and Desy Ratnasari.

According to Eddy, KIM continues to carry out so that later he can carry out jointly the candidates for governor and deputy governor candidates. According to him, the final decision will be made by the chairman of KIM, believes that Gerindra Chairman Prabowo Subianto, Golkar Chairman Airlangga Hartarto, PAN Chairman Zulfikli Hasan, and Democrat Chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY).

"The final decision will be on the hands of the chairman, in this case Mr. Prabowo as the chairman of Gerindra, Mr. Zul PAN, Airlangga, and Mr. AHY," concluded Eddy.