Jakarta 2024 Pilkada: How Suswono And Rano Karno Help Boost Ridwan Kamil And Pramono Anung's Voices

Ridwan Kamil and his wife, Atalia, watched Persib's match live at the stadium. (Instagram/@ayopersib)

JAKARTA The 2024 Jakarta Regional Head Election (Pilkada) will not feature Anies Baswedan and Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who clearly have the two highest electability in the capital. Pramono Anung and Ridwan Kamil are called "helped" by their representatives in the 2024 Jakarta Pilkada contestation.

Anies Baswedan is confirmed to be absent from the regional head contest after the registration of the 2024 Pilkada participants officially ended on Thursday (29/8/2024). The former Minister of Education is also said to have rejected the offer to run as a candidate for Governor of West Java.

Previously, Anies Baswedan was said to be a serious opponent for Ridwan Kamil-Suswono who was promoted by 15 political parties who are members of the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM) Plus.

However, the resignation of the former Governor of DKI Jakarta made it predicted that Ridwan Kamil would win easily. The PDIP-P decision to carry Pramono Anung-Rano Karno was even referred to as just a formality' and had no intention of matching KIM's strength.

Anies Baswedan has the highest electability based on a number of surveys, including according to Litbang Kompas. Anies was chosen by 29.08 percent of respondents, followed by PDIP cadres and former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama alias Ahok who was selected by 20 percent of respondents. Meanwhile, Ridwan Kamil only occupies the third position with 8.5 percent.

In the 2017 Pilkada, Anies Baswedan won the battle by getting 3.2 million votes, winning around 900 thousand votes from his competitor, Ahok.

Meanwhile, in the 2024 presidential election, Anies received 2.6 million votes in DKI Jakarta. He only lost narrowly, around 30 thousand votes from Prabowo Subianto who won in the capital city.

With Anies' absence from the Jakarta Pilkada, it means that approximately 3 million votes for him will be divided. Where will these voices be anchored?

Cultural political observer Masykur Isnan said Anies' absence from the 2024 Jakarta Pilkada caused disappointment for some people.

The governor of Jakarta for the 2017-2022 period is considered a figure who can provide color and make contestation more competitive. On the other hand, Anies is also a person who has a little more stories, has a lot of history in Jakarta and has a loyal voter base, so Anies' presence at the beginning is expected to make the Pilkada more democratic.

Ridwan Kamil is predicted to win easily in the 2024 Jakarta Pilkada because Pramono Anung is less popular than him. Moreover, this Golkar Party politician is also quite famous after becoming the Mayor of Bandung and the Governor of West Java in the last 10 years.

However, Masykur Isnan said, it needs to be noted by the RK team that the cultural bases of West Java and Jakarta are different.

"It needs to be understood and known, Jakarta has its own specifications, ranging from its success, to Persija's supporters' base, Jakmania. These are things that cannot be ruled out," said Masykur Isnan to VOI.

Basis football supporters cannot be ruled out. RK is very close to Persib, with Bobotoh. Meanwhile, Jakarta has Jakmania is a supporter of Persija militants," he added.

Persija is a football club that is the pride of Jakarta residents, with its supporting base called Jakmania. Meanwhile, Bang Emil, as soon as he wanted to be called now, is known as a loyal Bobotoh, as the supporter of Persib Bandung.

So far, between Persija and Persib and Jakmania and Bobotoh, they have had a hot rivalry in national football competitions.

Ridwan Kamil emphasized that he did not want to use the issue of football as political material in his campaign. Even so, he acknowledged that Persija and Jakmania were facts about the existence of the people of Jakarta.

For this reason, the existence of Persija and Jakmania is part of a sports culture that cannot be ignored by anyone who leads Jakarta.

"I don't want to be too seen as if using football for political things," said Bang Emil in the declaration of Ridwan Kamil-Suswono's volunteer team in South Jakarta, Sunday (1/9/2024).

"So the point is that I don't want anything to be missed in Jakarta's management. In managing Jakarta, starting from its culture, from the bureaucracy, including its sports culture, which includes Persija and Jakmania. And that must be the part that is taken care of," said Bang Emil.

Regarding the closeness between Bang Emil and Persib and Bobotoh, as well as the fact that he is very synonymous with Bandung and West Java, Suswono's presence is believed to be able to help RK get the votes that previously chose Anies. This is because Suswono, read governor Bang Emil, is a politician who has joined PKS since the beginning of the party's establishment.

PKS itself occupies the highest position in the vote acquisition for the legislative election of the DKI Jakarta DPRD in the 2024 General Election. PKS received 1,012,028 votes or 16.68 percent. Followed by PDIP as many as 850,174 votes or 14.01 percent.

If Ridwan Kamil is helped by the basis of PKS supporters who have the opportunity to vote for Suswono's whereabouts, Pramono Anung is also predicted to receive assistance from the figure of Rano Karno as his reading.

"On Pramono's side, there is the figure of Rano Karno who is a bit thick in nature, and this can be an added value," said Masykur Isnan.

The participation of Rano Karno, said Masykur Isnan, in the 2024 Jakarta Pilkada became interesting. Of all the candidates, the Betawi Jakarta people have cultural and historical closeness, namely Bang Karno, through the figure of Bang Doel.

"It's just a matter of how this can be capitalized into electoral bases. The Jakarta regional elections are interesting, the Betawi people cannot be ruled out, the Betawi people are one of the fundamentals that must be considered carefully, should not be abandoned," he said.

"In conclusion, the benefits that can be obtained by the reading governors are in their representatives. Rano Karno's base is very thick, while Suswono relies on a very large PKS basis," he added.