The ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has declared Central Java provincial governor Ganjar Pranowo (pic) as its presidential candidate in the 2024 general election.
The announcement by PDI-P chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri paves the way for South-East Asia’s largest democracy to have a three-way presidential race that will be held concurrently with the legislative election on Feb 14, 2024.
“With this decision, I hereby instruct all cadres to immediately move forward, work hard, meet the grassroots and win the 2024 general election,” Megawati said in a YouTube broadcast.
Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, 71, and former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan, 53, had separately been declared presidential candidates earlier.
Indonesia’s election law requires a political party or a coalition of political parties that field a pair of presidential and vice-presidential candidates to have at least 20% of the 575 national Parliament seats.
PDI-P is the only party out of nine that has more than 20%, and thus does not need to join hands with any party to field a candidate pairing.
Ganjar, 54, is struggling to make up for the damage to his standing among Indonesia’s electorate after he rejected hosting the 2023 FIFA youth soccer World Cup matches in Central Java – one of the designated venues – over opposition to Israel’s participation in the tournament. — The Straits Times/ANN
