The President Election of Indonesia

Who Is Running In 2019?

Nbominations closed on 10 August. In the weeks leading up to this deadline party leaders, spokespeople and would-be candidates engaged in a frenetic pace of meetings, counter meetings, balloon floating and popping with the media full of chat shows and panels, general reporting and lots of speculation on permutations of possible candidate pairings. On the final day of nomination, two pairs of candidates came forward. These comprised:

Joko Widodo & Ma’ruf Amin

This candidacy is being supported by 9 parties led by the party of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri (PDIP). President Jokowi is a member of this party. This team is also supported by the party of former President Soeharto (Golkar), the party of former President Wahid (PKB), the party of former Vice-president Hamzah Haz (PPP). Two other supporting parties, which have seats in the current parliament, are both splinters from Golkar and led respectively by a media tycoon (NasDem) and the current Speaker of the Senate (Hanura).

There are also 3 parties without seats in Parliament. One is an old splinter party of Golkar (PKPI), another is a new party led by another media tycoon (Perindo) and the other is a new party led by young people and hoping to propel youth and women in the political process (PSI).

Collectively this coalition represents 60% of seats in the Parliament and 62% of all votes from the last elections.

Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno

Facing off against this coalition is Lt Gen (ret) Prabowo Subianto, who ran and lost to Pres. Jokowi in 2014. He also has a new vice-presidential running mate, Mr Sandiaga Solehuddin Uno, the current Deputy Governor of Jakarta and a high profile young entrepreneur prior to entering politics. This coalition is supported by Mr Prabowo’s party (Gerindra).

Other members of the coalition consist of the party led by former President Yudhoyono (Dem), the Speaker of the National Assembly (PAN), and the party often seen as Indonesia’s fraternal peer of the Muslim Brotherhood (PKS). Finally there is a new party, led by former President Soeharto’s youngest son, Tommy Soeharto (Berkarya).

Collectively this coalition represents 40% of seats and 36% of all votes from the last elections.

Beyond these parties there are two other parties that have not been included in either coalition namely PBB and Garuda.

Setting aside the new parties, the main changes between the two pairs of coalitions that competed in 2014 and 2019 is that Golkar and PPP have switched from supporting the Prabowo candidacy in 2014 to supporting the Jokowi candidacy in 2019. The following chart outlines the breakdown of support for various presidential coalitions since the first such elections in 2004.