Jakarta – The Prosperous Justice Party's (PKS) Jakarta executive board has added another name to its list of prospective deputy governor candidates to undergo a confirmation hearing with the Gerindra Party.
Ahmad Syaikhu and Agung Yulianto have long been the PKS' sole options to replace former deputy governor Sandiaga Uno, but now Abdurrahman Suhaimi, a city councillor who leads the PKS faction, has joined the mix.
PKS Jakarta chief Syakir Purnomo said the party proposed the names to Gerindra on Wednesday. The three candidates will attend a confirmation hearing held by the two parties to select the best candidates.
"After the test, we will only propose two names to the City Council," Syakir said as reported by kompas.com.
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has been working solo since his former deputy, Sandiaga Uno, resigned from the post in August last year to run as a vice-presidential candidate alongside Prabowo Subianto for the 2019 presidential election.
The PKS and Gerindra are longtime allies and both parties endorsed Anies and Sandiaga in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election. They had been in a tug of war for months over which party would get to have one of its members run, but they eventually agreed to give the opportunity to the PKS.
However, instead of directly proposing two names to the City Council, Gerindra insisted on conducting a confirmation hearing before making a decision.
The names would then be proposed to the council, which will hold a plenary meeting to determine who will be Anies' new deputy. (sau)