PKB Affirms Postponing Elections Is Not Impossible

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairperson of the PKB DPP, Jazil Fawaid, assesses that postponing the election is indeed not an easy matter but it is not impossible in the political world.

According to him, the proposed postponement of the 2024 General Election will not necessarily be realized, however, the implementation of the election as a national political agenda will definitely happen.

"Regardless of the dynamics that occur, PKB is always ready to participate in the implementation of the election, whether it will still be held in 2024 or if due to certain circumstances the election has to be postponed. PKB is ready to be physically and mentally, whenever the election is held," he said, in a statement in Jakarta on Thursday, March 3.

He gave an example in early 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, President Joko Widodo signed Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) No. 2/2020 concerning Postponement of Voting for Simultaneous Regional Head Elections (Pilkada) 2020, from previously scheduled to be held in September 2020 to December 2020.

Fawaid said that currently, PKB as a party is very solid, for example, the management structure has also been formed up to the branch level.

In addition, according to him, internal consolidation is also continuing to be carried out even as his party is steadfast in making the General Chairperson of the PKB DPP, Muhaimin Iskandar, president.

"Every day, Muhaimin and party officials travel to various regions to attend a declaration of support for Gus Muhaimin to become President in 2024," he said.

He is very grateful for the support for Muhaimin running as a presidential candidate who keeps popping up everywhere. On the other hand, according to him, the trend of PKB's electability is also quite good from various surveys.

"I am very optimistic that in the 2024 election, PKB nationally can boost its seat acquisition in the DPR RI from the current 58 seats to 100 seats," he said.

He explained that due to Muhaimin's low electability, he still had two years to improve his electability.

Fawaid even quipped a number of names that have high electability or popularity based on the survey results, namely Ganjar Pranowo, Anies Baswedan, and Ridwan Kamil but so far do not have a "ticket" at all to run in the presidential election.

"The condition for participating in the presidential election is to have a ticket from a political party, a minimum of 20 percent of the national vote based on the results of the previous election. For PKB, Muhaimin already has a ticket of 10 percent, he just needs to look for an additional 10 percent," he said.