PAN Turning Away From Erick Thohir, Bima Arya: Not All Party Leaders Like ET

Bima Arya Sugiarto/DOK VIA BETWEEN

JAKARTA - The National Mandate Party (PAN) has turned away from carrying Erick Thohir to become Prabowo Subianto's vice presidential candidate (Cawapres). PAN Segara will hold a meeting to determine the next steps of the party.

This was conveyed by the Chairman of the PAN DPP Bima Arya at the Bogor City Hall, Saturday, October 21. Bima also believes that PAN will no longer carry Erick to nominate Prabowo's vice presidential candidate.

"In the party there are electability and acceptability (factors). Even though the electability is high, if the party leadership does not accept consensus, it will be useless," said Bima.

He said, Erick's vote in the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM) was not unanimous. There is a party that rejects Erick's name to be juxtaposed with Prabowo.

"Not all party leaders like Pak ET (Erick Thohir). The reality is like that," explained Bima.

Responding to the meeting of the Chairman of PAN Zulkifli Hasan (Zulhas) on Saturday morning, Bima also said that Gibran's full voice had not yet represented PAN. He considered that there should be an internal party meeting.

"Of course we are waiting for everything related to the future of the nation to be discussed internally so that the choice is clear. This means that even if there is a change, of course we hope that the change will also be conveyed to cadres internally," said Bima.

According to him, it is possible that PAN will hold an internal coordination meeting to determine the next steps. Including still defending Erick's name or turning to the name Gibran Rakabuming Raka proposed by the Golkar Party.

"I don't know yet. Because what I know is that the Ketum (Zulhas) is still communicating with the leaders of the advanced Indonesian coalition parties," he said.

Previously, Solo Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka met with PAN Chairman Zulkifli Hasan, Saturday morning. This meeting took place when President Jokowi's eldest son was widely rumored to have been decided as a vice presidential candidate accompanying Prabowo Subianto.

In an official written statement from PAN, it was stated that Gibran met Zulhas at the official residence of the Minister of Trade on Jalan Widya Chandra IV, South Jakarta, Saturday at 09.15 WIB. They then held a four-eye meeting.

Zulhas uploaded a photo of his meeting with Gibran through his personal Instagram account @zul.hasan.

"In order for Indonesia to continue to advance, relations must not be cut off. Bismillah mas Wali," he said in the description of the upload.

The two of them looked so close and warm after a dialogue for approximately 40 minutes. After having a dialogue, Gibran immediately said goodbye to Zulhas.