AHY Disagrees That Anies' Vice Presidential Candidate Must Be Central Java Or East Java

Chairman of the Democratic Party Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) together with Anies Baswedan (doc AHY)

JAKARTA - The general chairman of the Democratic Party Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) disagrees if the prospective vice presidential candidate (cawapres) accompanying Anies Baswedan must come from Central Java (Central Java) or East Java (East Java).

"Because what we are facing is a presidential election for Indonesia, not for one or two provinces," he said after the launch of AHY's book Transformation Tetralogy at the Djakarta Theater in Jakarta, Thursday, August 10 evening.

According to him, the democratic party every five years is to find pairs of candidates for president and vice president (capres-cawapres) from all over Indonesia.

Nevertheless, AHY does not deny that Central Java and East Java are two of the three provinces with the highest number of voters.

He also said that it is not good if you focus too much on those two areas.

"We also have to understand, of course, it shouldn't be seen as patchy. We want options to be presented and discussed rationally," he said.

He stated that he was more interested in discussing the best strategy to win voters' votes in the 2024 presidential election rather than focusing on the cawapres figure.

He admitted that he saw Anies as the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party's stretcher and also had the same thoughts.

He emphasized that Democrats along with two other supporting political parties, NasDem and PKS, had also handed over the final decision to determine the vice presidential candidate to Anies. The three supporting parties are only waiting for Anies' reasons for choosing the cawapres figure later.

"It is true that there are required criteria including factors to be considered. We are open, please convey this properly so that it can be explained to the three parties and also the wider community," said AHY.

On Friday (21/7), Deputy Chairman of the NasDem Party Ahmad Ali stated that Anies' electability was weak in the East Java and Central Java regions.

Therefore, according to him, it would be better if Anies chose a strong cawapres in the two provinces.

"In my opinion, (vice president, ed.) who can help win the Java region. So in terms of criteria, according to us, ideally, it would be East Java people with NU blood," he said.