Anies, Ganjar and Andika could all scramble in the coming months to get a stronger party or even coalition to back them up, unless Nasdem succeeds in joining two or more events to reach the threshold for nomination. This particular explains why celebration leaders enjoy a distinct advantage over non-party figures in the race to secure PE nominations.
A POPULARITY CONTEST
In private, celebration leaders have lamented that their parties’ presidential candidate choice has been influenced disproportionately by polling amounts that focus generally on popularity.
In the party elites’ view, it is the celebration that has the constitutional right to nominate the particular presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Many elites also believe that if they happen to be their party’s president election candidate, their party will then have the ability to ride on their coattails to gain more votes during the general political election.
If the party elites manage to freeze out the current frontrunners within the popular polls (except for Prabowo, who is still leading most polls) in 2024’s presidential election, this may mark a moving zeitgeist in Indonesian politics.
Jokowi was an ordinary PDI-P cadre who, against the odds, became their party’s presidential candidate in 2014. Even Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), who was a leader of the Democratic Celebration but not its chairman in the 2004 presidential election, was swept into power due to his popularity with the voters.
Both SBY and Jokowi defeated the chairpersons of major celebrations, which showed exactly how mass popularity was obviously a key factor in earlier elections.
Important party figures will benefit if non-party candidates or popular ordinary cadres for example Anies, Ganjar plus Ridwan Kamil fail to secure their party’s nomination. The celebration leaders appear to be utilizing their veto power to safe these tickets for themselves.
Even when popular figures like Anies and Ganjar manage to secure support from any politics party, it is likely that are going to forced to settle for the particular vice-presidential nomination. It is because, as things remain, the existing party frontrunners are mostly trailing non-party candidates in recognition.