Ganjar-Anies Compete, Erick Thohir The Dark Horse

SOE Minister Erick Thohir. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of SOEs)

JAKARTA - The National Working Meeting of the Nasdem Party is considered to be quite an interesting event to describe the current political reality. For the first time, political parties discussed the aspirations of presidential candidates who were open. Instead of candidates from internal parties, the Nasdem National Working Meeting instead brought up a number of names of figures from various backgrounds.

The three names that emerged in the Nasdem National Working Meeting were Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, DKI Governor Anies Baswedan, and SOE Minister Erick Thohir. Political observer M Qodari has an opinion regarding the three names that appeared at the Nasdem National Working Meeting. According to Qodari, Ganjar and Anies are indeed competing for the top spot. On the other hand, Erick is a dark horse.

Qodari assessed that Erick had the potential to be a Nasdem representative in the presidential election.

"Indeed, at this time the electability is still not maximized, but this is an opportunity for Nasdem to move its political machine," said Qodari, in a statement, Thursday, June 17.

Qodari believes that there is a side to Erick that makes him worthy of being the dark horse of the Nasdem presidential candidate. This is because Erick's figure is relatively easy to accept by Nasdem cadres.

"Because he doesn't have a party yet, he (Erick) doesn't have any colors like Ganjar, the color is red. Therefore, he doesn't run the risk of splitting the vote," he said.

On a separate occasion, political observer Dedi Kurnia Syah assessed that Erick was a potential figure who deserved the attention of many political parties. Dedi referred to Erick's meeting with Megawati last week which was seen as proving that Erick's figure was easily accepted by the main national political forces.

“At least, Erick is quite interesting. In addition to the public's fairly strong trust in professional figures, he is also believed to be able to have an electoral impact," said Dedi.