Bima Arya Claims To Have Discussed Erick Thohir's Chance To Become A Vice President In 2024 With Jokowi

Bogor Mayor Bima Arya Sugiarto with President Jokowi (doc the Bogor City Government)

JAKARTA - PAN politician Bima Arya admitted that he had with President Joko Widodo discussed the opportunity for SOE Minister Erick Thohir to become a vice presidential candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres). "I want to tell you an experience called Pak Jokowi one year ago. Pak Jokowi invited a discussion of many things, one of which was asked about Mr. Erick. 'How is Mr. Mayor, Mr. Erick Thohir?'" Bima said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, August 29. Bima revealed that the chat with Jokowi took place around the same time. 2022. President Jokowi, at that time questioned Erick Thohir's opportunity to run in the 2024 presidential election. According to the Mayor of Bogor, Erick Thohir is a smart figure. Even so, Erick has not been tested to get under the sympathy of the Indonesian people. "I said, Mr. Erick is smart, but Mr. Erick's homework is how to come down and then get sympathy about that," he explained. Then, Jokowi again asked Erick's ability to face Erick's ability to face him The 2024 election will soon be held. Bima assessed that it all depends on Erick's will. "Mr. Jokowi said, 'But the time is not fast?' I think so, I said it depends on Mr. Erick, if Mr. Erick fights, the results will be seen," said Bima. "Because at that time the survey was still not okay. The length of the speech," he added, seeing the recent survey results on vice presidential electability, he believed Erick was a fighter. Bima also believes Erick is suitable to run as The vice presidential candidate proposed by PAN. "Today, Mr. Erick's survey has skyrocketed, including the top vice president and even some of the highest surveys. What does that mean? What I convey is true, Mr. Erick is a fighter and Mr. Erick is suitable for PAN," concluded Bima. PAN is currently a member of the Advanced Indonesia Coalition which carries Prabowo Subianto as a presidential candidate for the 2024 presidential election. PAN officially supports Prabowo during the declaration with Golkar in Jakarta on August 13, 2023. Thus, at that time Prabowo received support from his parties, Gerindra, PKB, PAN, and Golkar. Meanwhile, for the proposal of Prabowo's assistant, PAN consistently offered the names of Erick Thohir as a candidate for vice president. Even so, Prabowo has not announced his future vice presidential candidate, nor will other presidential candidates, namely Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan. Registering for presidential and vice presidential candidates is scheduled for October 19, 2023 to November 25, 2023.

Based on Law Number 7/2017 concerning Elections (UU Pemilu), pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates are proposed by political parties or coalitions of political parties participating in the election who meet the requirements for obtaining seats of at least 20 percent of the total seats in the DPR or obtaining 25 percent of the nationally valid votes in the previous election of members of the DPR. Currently, there are 575 seats in parliament so that pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 2024 presidential election must have at least 115 seats in the DPR RI. It is also possible that pairs of candidates are promoted by political parties or coalitions of political parties participating in the 2019 Election with a total valid vote acquisition of at least 34,992,703 votes.