Puan Maharani Wants To 'Red Up' West Java, Observers Say Every Political Party Must Dream Of Winning In West Java

Puan Maharani with the Chairperson of the PDIP Megawati Soekarnoputri/DOK PHOTO: Wardhany Tsa Tsia-VOI

JAKARTA - The chairman of the DPR who is also the chairman of the PDIP DPP, Puan Maharani, is determined to rediscover West Java in the 2024 election.

A political observer from Indonesia's Al Azhar University, Andriadi Achmad, believes that there is nothing wrong with Puan Maharani's statement that PDIP will "redden" West Java. Moreover, West Java is the province with the largest population in Indonesia, which is around 50 million people.

"Therefore, every political party will definitely fight and dream to win its political party in West Java," Andriadi told VOI, Tuesday, July 5.

In addition, Andriadi continued, the statement was the language of the functionaries of the political party "Puan" when in front of cadres and their sympathizers. Where and whenever you have to pump up motivation and the spirit of victory.

"Although in general we can see that each political party has a mass base of each region, for example in West Sumatra and West Java the mass base of Gerindra and PKS, Central Java and Bali the PDIP mass base, East Java the PKB mass base, PPP, PDIP, South Sulawesi and Gorontalo are the mass bases of Golkar and others," said the Executive Director of the Nusantara Institute PolCom SRC.

According to Andriadi, the characteristics of voters in West Java are nationalists and religious. In the 2019 general election, Gerindra was the political party with the most votes and was second, followed by PKS.

Andriadi said Gerindra's victory was because the presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno was supported by PKS and non-political parties such as PA 212, FPI and other Islamic organizations. So there was a coat-tail effect, namely Gerindra's victory in West Java.

"However, according to my analysis it will be very different in the 2024 presidential election, especially after 2019 Gerindra joined the government, which incidentally caused the disappointment of supporters and sympathizers in the 2019 presidential election, especially from groups among Islamic voters," he concluded.