JakartaPost-Nov 26
Although the campaign season does not begin in earnest until Wednesday, all three presidential candidates and their running mates have not missed the chance to hit the trail early, making appearances at rallies and discussions in the past weeks in hopes of luring voters ahead of the February election. Presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who will contest the election with running mate Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD, was in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Sunday to participate in a morning run. His visit to Makassar came just days after he made an appearance in Sorong, the capital of Southwest Papua province. Ganjar, however, is not the only name on the February ballot to recently make a foray into Makassar. Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s eldest son who is the running mate to Gerindra Party chair Prabowo Subianto, also made an appearance in the city on Friday and Saturday. The third presidential candidate Anies Baswedan, meanwhile, made an appearance at a launch event for the Prosperous Justice Party’s (PKS) election campaign strategy at the party’s office in Depok, West Java. The PKS is one of three parties backing Anies and his running mate Muhaimin Iskandar of the National Awakening Party (PKB). Each of the candidate pairs is hoping for a swift victory on the ballot next year. But analysts predict that the election will almost certainly necessitate a runoff given that no candidate pair is polling above or near 50 percent, the threshold to score an outright win. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2023/11/25/ganjar-on-charm-offensive-as-campaign-season-nears.html.
