PDI-P faces hard job in Bandarlampung mayoralty election<\/p>\n
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post\/Bandarlampung<\/p>\n
Kasman, 45, the chief of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
\nStruggle's (PDI-P) Bandarlampung branch, has often got home late
\nduring the past few days.<\/p>\n
Kasman's mission is an unenviable one. He has been burdened
\nwith the responsibility of organizing his party's candidate for
\nthe upcoming mayoral race.<\/p>\n
What makes his job harder than usual is that the PDI-P only
\nwon six seats in the Bandarlampung municipal council in last
\nyear's general election; below the minimum seven seats needed for
\nparties to put up mayoral candidates.<\/p>\n
A seat short, the PDI-P has had to build a coalition with
\nother political parties in the city in order to meet the
\nthreshold.<\/p>\n
Building coalitions, Kasman has found, is not an easy task. In
\nNovember last year, the PDI-P joined forces with the Freedom Bull
\nNational Party (PNBK) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), which
\nhad one seat each.<\/p>\n
But, in December, the chiefs of both parties said they were
\nleaving the PDI-P alliance, and had chosen to build coalitions
\nwith four other parties: the Reform Star Party (PBR), the United
\nDevelopment Party (PPP), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the
\nNational Awakening Party (PKB).<\/p>\n
\"I had doubted that they would support us. They often held
\nmeetings with the four parties, and apparently they discussed
\nfielding candidates of their own,\" Kasman said.<\/p>\n
The grouping had earlier accused the PDI-P of being overly
\nambitious for trying to put up a candidate of its own, he said.<\/p>\n
Ignoring the charge, Kasman intensively lobbied the party
\nbosses to support the PDI-P.<\/p>\n
His efforts finally bore fruit after six parties, including
\nthe PNBK and PDS, apparently came into the fold and expressed
\ntheir support for the PDI-P. \"It will be a grand coalition that
\nwill contest the three other big political parties nominating
\ntheir own candidates in the upcoming direct elections for the
\nhead of regional governments,\" Kasman said.<\/p>\n
The three big parties in question are the Golkar Party, which
\nwon eight seats in the last year's election, the Democratic
\nParty, seven; and the Prosperous Justice Party, eight.<\/p>\n
The grand coalition had been put to a test recently and it
\ntriumphed against the three bigger parties.<\/p>\n
\"We won the vote during the election of the council leaders
\nrecently. And we will repeat the success in the upcoming direct
\nelection for the heads of regional governments,\" Kasman said.<\/p>\n
But, Mahendra Utama, a local political analyst, doubted that
\nthe grand coalition would work well, saying the coalition was a
\nfragile one.<\/p>\n
\"Every party in the coalition will have their own opinions
\nabout the candidates they will support and it will lead to
\npotential conflicts. If they can not resolve the problem, the
\ncoalition will break up,\" Mahendra said.<\/p>\n
Given that fact, the PDI-P's road to election success was
\nstill a long and windy one, he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/pdi-p-faces-hard-job-in-bandarlampung-mayoralty-election-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}