Still Monitoring Competitors, NasDem Hasn't Yet Locked Vice Presidential Candidate For Anis

Anies Baswedan met with the Chairman of the DPP Nasdem Party Surya Paloh at the NasDem Headquarters on Wednesday, July 24, 2019 (Antara-Fauzi)

JAKARTA - NasDem, Democrats, and PKS continue to work on the names of vice presidential or vice presidential candidates to accompany Anies Baswedan to run for the 2024 presidential election. So far the Democrats have proposed Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono or AHY while PKS has proposed Ahmad Heryawan.

"In two small team meetings, PKS did propose Ahmad Heryawan and the Democrats proposed Mr. AHY. We respect that as a party decision, of course in this case NasDem did not propose a candidate and NasDem left it to Anies to determine it," said NasDem DPP chairman Willy Aditya to reporters, Monday, October 7th.

Willy revealed that both NasDem, Democrats, and PKS have made their respective mechanisms, in which political parties may nominate candidates for vice presidential candidate, as well as accept candidates outside the party. However, the final decision remains with the party leadership.

Meanwhile, the criteria for the vice presidential candidate that have been agreed upon by the three parties are, first, to increase leverage. Second, solidify the party, and third, have the capacity of government.

Regarding the timing of the declaration, Willy said the three parties would first take a peek at the candidate pairs that would become Anies' competitors in the 2024 presidential election.

"So far, we have tried to agree on the mechanism at our level for the presidential candidate first, we will determine the vice presidential candidate later after we also see how the composition of the competitors is," he said.

The deputy chairman of the DPR Baleg added that his party also conducted a survey of the vice presidential candidates and also conducted a safari as part of the process of correspondence with community leaders about who they want the leader to be.

Regarding the vice presidential candidate, Willy said, his party has not locked anyone up and has not decided anything. Because NasDem wants to be in harmony with the community. According to him, this vice presidential candidate will also be a surprise in his political process.

"Of course the vice presidential position will also be an element of surprise as well, yes, and then of course it's not just electability or electoral factors, but there are qualitative variables in determining the vice presidential candidate," he concluded.