Pribadi Wicaksono, Jakarta – Chairman of the newly formed Berkarya Party, Hutomo Mandala Putra more known as Tommy Soeharto who is the son of late President Soeharto, is more optimistic facing the 2019 presidential election following the arrival of his sister, Titiek Soeharto into the party structure.
Titiek was previously an active senior politician at Golkar Party before deciding to jump ship to her brother's political party. Tommy Soeharto had even set a target of obtaining 80 seats at the House of Representatives (DPR) and three slots at the Regional Legislative Council (DPRD).
This begs the question of who the person Berkarya Party will submit in the upcoming 2019 presidential election.
"It is still too early to talk about who our future presidential candidate will be," said Tommy at Yogyakarta on Monday, June 11. He only suggested that his party is still monitoring the potential candidates that will officially register in August of 2018.
However, Tommy mentioned that the criteria his party is seeking is a presidential candidate that has the most support from the majority of voters, even if that would mean supporting and endorsing PDI-P's incumbent candidate Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo.
He further suggested that the party is still focusing its efforts on reaching a target of dominating the parliamentary slots through the formation of volunteers in outer regions. Berkarya Party currently has 1,000 dedicated volunteers in the Java Island and 500 outside of Java.