Hasto: Ganjar’s Vice President Carefully Considered, Just Wait for Official Announcement

Jakarta, Indonesia - As political developments continue to move at a high speed rate, the Secretary-General of the PDIP, Hasto Kristiyanto, has announced that his coalition of parties supporting Ganjar Pranowo - currently composed of PDIP and PPP as the coalition members represented in the DPR, has conducted careful consideration regarding Ganjar’s Vice Presidential Candidate following a discussion between party leaders and dialogue with President Joko Widodo.

“The question of who will be Ganjar’s running mate has already experienced careful consideration and is simply waiting for the right amount of momentum, (And the running mate) will be announced later by Ibu Megawati.” (24/09/23) Said Hasto, quoted by PDIP’s X (Formerly known as Twitter) Handle @PDI_Perjuangan in a post.

In the time before the official announcement, speculation has been widespread regarding the identity of Ganjar’s running mate, including names such as West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, Coordinating Minister of Politics, Law, and Security Mahfud M.D., Minister of State Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir, and Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno.

It is important to note that among this roster of names, only Sandiaga Uno officially belongs to a party within Ganjar’s coalition, with him recently joining the PPP as a cadre.

Names such as Erick Thohir and Ridwan Kamil might be seen as already having commitments with parties in separate coalitions, with PAN heavily supporting Erick Thohir’s bid to be Candidate Prabowo Subianto’s Vice President and Ridwan Kamil being a cadre of Golkar, a party which is also in Prabowo’s cabinet.

Mahfud M.D. is also seen as an attractive prospect for Ganjar’s running mate due to his reputation of being an excellent Indonesian legal scholar and someone who enjoys widespread popularity as a statesman.

What is sure is that speculation will continue to happen before the official announcement - and considering the official candidate registration is quite near, this announcement might happen sooner rather than later.