Nasdem Councils Name Baswedan, Pranowo as Potential Presidential Candidates

TheIndonesia.id - Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo are among the names recommended by the majority of regional leadership councils of the National Democrat (or Nasdem) Party to become the candidates for Indonesia’s 2024 presidential election.

During the Party’s national working meeting in Jakarta on Thursday, June 16, it was revealed that based on the recommendation of regional leadership councils, Baswedan and Pranowo emerged as the prominent names from the majority of councils.

As reported by Antara, besides Baswedan and Pranowo, who are currently the governors of Jakarta and Central Java, other names were also suggested by the regional councils. This includes Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Erick Thohir, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Andika Perkasa, Indonesian Army chief of staff Dudung Abdurachman, and West Java governor Ridwan Kamil.

Among some of the regional councils that recommended Baswedan and Pranowo are Papua, Central Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, North Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Banten, Riau Islands, and Yogyakarta.

Led by politician and media mogul Surya Paloh, Nasdem Party was first established in 2011. In the 2019 general election, the Party won 9.05 percent of the total votes and won 59 out of 575 seats (10.26 percent) in the parliament.

According to the presidential threshold, political parties can nominate presidential candidates if it wins 20 percent of seats or 25 percent of nationally legitimate votes in the previous legislative elections, and based on Nasdem’s result in 2019, it has to form a coalition in order to reach the threshold.