Jakarta – The victory of president-elect Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has prompted more prominent members of the United Development Party (PPP) and the Democratic Party to join his team of supporters.

Senior PPP politician and former vice president Hamzah Haz, for example, announced that he had supported Jokowi from the very beginning, despite the PPP's decision to back Prabowo Subianto.

"I am still hoping that my party will finally listen to the aspirations of its constituents, even though I am not involved in the structural part of the party anymore," he said after attending an Idul Fitri open house at PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri's residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Monday.

Hamzah acknowledged that it was an undisputed fact that the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla ticket was more popular than rival candidate pair Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa in most PPP strongholds.

On the same occasion on Monday, Hayono Isman, member of the Democratic Party advisory council, said his party would consider the best option, despite agreeing to form a permanent coalition with the Prabowo-Hatta ticket.

According to Hayono, his party was basically neutral and its members were free to support whoever they wished. However, he said it would be best the if the Democratic Party acknowledged that Jokowi had won the presidential election.

"The Democratic Party is a party that upholds the rules of democracy. So, we will always support whoever won the election legitimately and we will not hamper the president's efforts to build this country," he said.

Hayono said further that the Democratic Party would wait for the final decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) on Aug. 21 regarding the appeal filed by the Prabowo-Hatta ticket against the election results before making any decision on its stance. (gda/dic)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/07/28/more-prominent-ppp-dems-figures-jump-ship.html