Denying TKN Prabowo-Gibran, AMIN National Team: The Proposal For The Paslon Present Does Not Mean Eliminating The Candidate Debate

Paslon Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar announced the composition of the AMIN national team in Menteng, Jakarta, Tuesday, November 14. (Diah-VOI)A

JAKARTA - Co-captain of the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar National Campaign Team (Timnas AMIN) Nihayatul Wafiroh denied the accusations by the Prabowo-Gibran National Campaign Team (TKN) which said the AMIN camp proposed a vice presidential debate accompanied by their respective presidential candidates.

In the discussion on planning the debate format of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates held by the KPU on November 29, Nihayatul revealed that his party only suggested that the candidate pair be presented in full for every debate to be held.

However, Nihayatul claimed that the AMIN camp did not propose that the special debate for the vice presidential candidate be eliminated.

"The AMIN national team conveyed the initial idea in the FGD discussion that it should be in every debate agenda, a candidate pair for presidential and vice-presidential candidates to always be presented in the whole series of debates. But it does not eliminate the vice presidential debate," Nihayatul said in a written statement, Sunday, November 3.

According to Nihayatul, his proposal regarding the complete presence of the candidate pair remains important even if only the presidential or vice presidential candidates are arguing.

In a sense, if the ongoing debate agenda is between the vice presidential candidates, then the presidential candidate can still be presented even as an audience and not to argue at all.

"Our proposal to attend in full pairs does not mean being present to argue, nor does it mean eliminating the debate between the vice presidents," he said.

The KPU, he continued, stated that it would again hold a technical meeting of debates with the entire team of presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Regarding this matter, the AMIN national team has sent a letter proposing that the vice presidential debate be held.

For information, the KPU eliminated the 2024 presidential election debate format which only featured the vice president in one activity. This time there is no special debate for the vice presidential candidate separately because the couple will come with each debate.

The Prabowo-Gibran National Campaign Team (TKN) responded to this. A member of the Prabowo-Gibran Expert Council, Dradjad H. Wibowo, said that the proposed vice presidential debate format accompanied by his presidential candidate was originally disclosed by the AMIN camp.

Drajad revealed that this proposal was put forward in a KPU meeting with representatives of the three pairs of presidential and vice-presidential candidates on November 29. The meeting discussed the KPU's presentation regarding the date, place, theme, event format, design, and composition of the debate event.

"Anies-Muhaimin representatives submit some input or suggestions. One of them reads approximately as follows, 'So that in every debate session, presidential and vice presidential candidates are present together, the division of time or portion of speech is please regulated by the KPU'," said Drajad.

Drajad said this proposal was submitted by a mother of Anies-Muhaimin representatives and strengthened by her colleague. However, TKN Prabowo-Gibran did not know who the proposer was.

Then, when the representatives of the Prabowo-Gibran pair got their turn to reveal their proposal, the chairman of the Prabowo-Gibran TKN Expert Council, Burhanuddin Abdullah, approved the proposal from the Anies-Cak Imin camp.

"Thus, it is clear and clear that President Jokowi did not intervene in debate with the KPU. In fact, I personally believe he does not know about the proposal," he said.