UNAIR NEWS – Approaching the 2024 presidential election, various discussions on the contestation of political elites began to spread. The emerging series of political events added the twists and turns, such as DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Andika Perkasa, and Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo were the presidential candidates nominated by the NasDem Party at the NasDem National Working Meeting (Rakernas) on Friday, June 18, 2022.
UNAIR politics expert Ali Sahab SIP MSi gave his thoughts on NasDem Party’s maneuver. He said that the NasDem Party Chairman Surya Paloh was able to see the potential of candidates, allowing him to announce the prospective candidates in advance compared to other parties.
“Surya Paloh was able to see the potential figures to run as presidential candidates. However, announcing NasDem’s presidential candidate won’t be anything like the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which boasts to nominate Anies Baswedan,” Ali stated in an interview on Wednesday, June 22, 2022.
Ganjar Pranowo, he went on, may be nominated by United Indonesia Coalition (KIB) which was newly formed by Golkar Party, United Development Party (PPP), and National Mandate Party (PAN). While Prabowo wants to be paired up with Muhaimin Iskandar, Puan will look for another figure other than Anies Baswedan.
“It’s pretty hard for Anies to pair up with Puan since Surya Paloh and Megawati were at odds unless some figure is willing to unite them,” said Ali.
At last, Ali stated that the final decision of nominating presidential candidates will be the coalition parties’ to make. This is the impact of the election law policy, which stipulates a 20 percent Presidential Threshold (PT). The UNAIR political science lecturer added that the 20 percent Presidential Threshold was too high. The number should be reduced so that communities were given more options to elect the president.
“The [PT] number shouldn’t be that high, 10 percent is ideal. More candidates to run, people will have more figures to elect,” said Ali.
The presidential threshold is the gateway president and vice president candidates nominated by political parties. The presidential threshold in the Election Law is set at 20 percent of the total seats in the House of Representatives (DPR) or 25 percent of the national legal votes.
Several lawsuits to examine the material have been filed to the Supreme Court as the presidential threshold is considered to limit the number of candidates. In addition, most political parties must form a coalition to strengthen and win the presidential and vice-presidential candidates who will run for the 2024 election.
Author: Haryansyah Setiawan
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
