Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – The Gerindra Party is seeking a potential candidate to be paired with its chairman Prabowo Subianto in the 2019 presidential race.

Party secretary-general Ahmad Muzani said his party was currently doing an internal survey on the electability of 15 figures, including seven Gerindra cadres. Former Constitutional Court justice Mahfud MD has been mentioned as one of the names on the list.

"Prabowo is [...] considering whether the figure needs to be a member of a political party or not," Muzani said Thursday. "But he has yet to discuss it any further with us [the central executive board]."

Prabowo, widely predicted to be President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's rival in 2019, has yet to publicly announce his intention to run for president again.

Gerindra, however, plans to declare support for Prabowo in April. "Prabowo will definitely run. Gerindra is still convincing other parties to support Prabowo. So far, we've already gained support from [a party] that can help us reach the minimum requirement," Muzani said.

He was referring to the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Gerindra's only ally in the opposition coalition. Together, Gerindra and PKS have a total of 113 seats in the House of Representatives, enough to field a candidate, as the Election Law requires a minimum of 112 seats.

PKS central executive board chairman Mardani Ali Sera said that his party had proposed nine figures as potential running mates for Prabaowo, including party chairman Sohibul Iman, former chairman Anis Matta and West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan.

"We [Gerindra and PKS] will discuss the candidates together. If Gerindra proposes Prabowo as a presidential candidate, then [we] will seek the runningmate. Gerindra should not determine the pair alone," Mardani said. (ahw)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/03/17/gerindra-seeks-runningmate-for-prabowo.html