Golkar's Electability Drops, Observer: Party Machines Are Still Half-Hearted In Nominating Airlangga's Presidential Candidate

Chairman of the Golkar Party DPP Airlangga Hartarto (center) chaired a plenary board meeting at the Golkar Headquarters, Slipi, Jakarta, Tuesday 5 November 2019. (ANTARA-Aprillio A)

JAKARTA - The results of the latest survey related to the electability of political parties put Golkar down to third place. The Executive Director of the Syndicate, Ari Nurcahyo, assessed that this condition was caused by the party's machine which was still working half-heartedly.

According to him, the internal factions of the Golkar Party have not been solid in nominating General Chairperson Airlangga Hartarto as a presidential candidate (Capres) in 2024.

"The party machine is half-hearted in running Airlangga," said Ari, Monday, October 31.

Ari said that Golkar cadres from the grassroots to the elite have not yet voted in favor of Airlangga's candidacy. The vulnerability of solidity in the midst of the many factions in Golkar needs to be re-glued.

"Solidity is indeed a fundamental issue within Golkar. Why is it not solid? Obviously, because there are many Golkar factions," he said.

Ari compared the different cohesiveness experienced by the PDI-P (PDIP) body. According to him, the PDIP is up to the party's decision. In the bull party, there is only a single decision and order from Megawati Soekarnoputri as Ketum.

"So it is diametrically different between the solidity of PDIP and Golkar," he said.

In addition, Ari continued, the decline in Golkar's electability was also due to Airlangga's character which tends to stagnate. In the survey, Airlangga's electability was slow to be hoisted and stagnated at below 10 percent.

"Secondly, Airlangga's character is a bit difficult to lift. Why? In fact, it departs from solidity. If everyone lifts it, it will definitely rise (it will rise, ed)," said Ari.

For example, said Ari, in the initial phase, Airlangga's electability was higher than the chairman of the PDIP DPP Puan Maharani. But now, Puan is a little taller in character. This was due to the structural and PDIP cadres who were serious about appointing Ms. Puan.

According to Ari, the figure of Airlangga should be capitalized by Golkar, considering that the Coordinating Minister for the Economy has strong political capital.

"Even though he has strong political capital, is close to Mr. Jokowi, has good achievements, good performance, Mr. Airlangga's role is dominant," he said.

Therefore, said Ari, Golkar's homework at this time is how to capitalize on political resources to increase the electability of Golkar as well as Airlangga Hartarto.

"There is a lot of potential and resources that can be capitalized to increase the popularity and electability of Golkar and Mr. Airlangga at the same time," he concluded.

The results of the latest Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC) survey show that the electability of PDIP has jumped from 19.3 percent to 24 percent. In second place, Gerindra rose from 12.6 percent to 13.4 percent. On the other hand, Golkar's electability decreased from 12.3 percent to 8.5 percent.