Tough fight: Presidential candidates, Anies (right), Prabowo (centre) and Ganjar posing after the first presidential election debate at the General Elections Commission office in Jakarta on Dec 12, 2023. — AFP
The campaign teams of rival candidates to Prabowo Subianto, the front runner in Indonesia’s Feb 14 presidential election, are meeting in secret to find ways to erode his lead, sources involved in campaigning told The Straits Times.
Supporters of Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo are teaming up to exchange information and strategise their moves, amid claims that Prabowo’s camp has been using hardball tactics against them, such as getting security officers to tear down their election posters.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a campaign strategist for Ganjar said: “(Our) teams at the grassroots level, the working level, have been getting in touch informally with the Anies camp to discuss how we can outmanoeuvre them (the Prabowo camp). Our banners, flags were taken down by them. We work together, for example, to help protect these campaign materials.”
A senior campaign manager from one of the camps said: “Without being orchestrated, our relations (between the Anies and Ganjar camps) are good. It just flows naturally, fuelled by a sense of solidarity. Our grassroots on the ground don’t slide-tackle each other.”
Despite being ahead of his rivals in several opinion surveys, Prabowo could lose the race if he fails to garner over 50% of the votes on Feb 14 and a run-off vote between the top two contenders is held.
If his rivals were to combine forces and consolidate their votes in the second round, scheduled for June 26, they may well pip the defence minister to the post.
“The understanding is that if Ganjar goes into the second round (of the 2024 presidential election), the Anies camp will support and endorse Ganjar. And vice versa,” said the strategist.
The two camps have also agreed to join forces in collecting evidence of rule breaches by Prabowo during campaigning that could be used later to file a complaint.
An election win could be overturned if a rival can prove there are prior structured, systematic and massive breaches of rules, according to Indonesia’s election law.
Members of Parliament from Ganjar’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, which commands the largest number of seats in the House, have complained about a November 2023 incident in which policemen in East Java province were allegedly seen helping to hang up campaign posters of Prabowo, 72, and his vice-presidential running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, the elder son of President Joko Widodo.
Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, head of strategy coordination in Prabowo’s campaign team, has dismissed such allegations as nonsense, as Prabowo has been leading the other two contenders by a wide margin in the opinion polls.
Prabowo garnered 43.7% of support, while Anies and Ganjar received 26.1% and 19.4% respectively, according to opinion polls conducted between Dec 13 and 18 by Jakarta-based think-tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
A video that went viral in November showed civil security officers in Pematang Siantar in North Sumatra province taking down billboard posters of Ganjar, 55, and his running mate Mahfud MD, 66.
Meanwhile, amateur videos of an incident on Dec 30, 2023, showed a group of Ganjar’s supporters and six soldiers in Boyolali, Central Java, involved in arguments on the street before the soldiers assaulted the civilians, injuring seven, two of whom were hospitalised. Ganjar was campaigning in the regency at the time. The military is investigating the case.
The altercation was preceded by Ganjar’s supporters riding motorcycles with loud exhaust pipes in a convoy that was stopped by the military officers, according to tribunnews.com
The Jakarta Post reported that Anies’ campaign team has complained against West Java’s acting governor Bey Machmuddin for giving preferential treatment to national politicians campaigning in his jurisdiction.
Armed forces commander Agus Subiyanto has pledged to maintain neutrality for the 2024 election, stressing: “If there are any rogue military personnel involved in practical politics, they would face criminal charges, consequences from their immediate superior.”
He also said the military is setting up posts across towns, where local residents can promptly report any suspicion of military officers being involved in politics in their area.
National police spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan has reiterated that all policemen are bound by the law that bans them from participating in any activity that could be deemed as supporting any of the candidates running for office.
They are also banned from attending or speaking at any political event.
There are 205 million eligible voters for Indonesia’s elections, which are held every five years and offer ballots for president and vice-president, and parliamentary seats for the national, provincial and regency levels across the world’s largest archipelago. — The Straits Times/ANN
