Dasco Claims No Discussions on Gerindra-NasDem Merger
Gerindra Party’s daily chairman Sufmi Dasco Ahmad claimed there were no discussions regarding the merger of NasDem Party with Gerindra Party, as reported by Tempo magazine in its 12 April 2026 edition.
“As stated by NasDem, we have never had such discussions,” said this Deputy Speaker of the People’s Representative Council at the DPR Building in Jakarta on Tuesday, 21 April 2026.
Dasco admitted he had only just learned of the information. He then questioned the basis and source of the Gerindra-NasDem party merger rumour.
“We were also, um, what do you call it? As soon as we heard it, we were confused about where it came from, but since NasDem had already explained it first as the subject is NasDem, we think that’s sufficient,” he said.
In last week’s Tempo magazine edition, it was revealed that Prabowo proposed to Surya Paloh to merge NasDem Party with Gerindra. The idea emerged after the two met at Prabowo’s residence in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java, in mid-February 2026.
If realised, the merger of the two parties would gather nearly 35 million national votes or 23 percent based on the 2024 election results. According to three senior NasDem officials, Surya did not welcome the proposal because he wanted to maintain his position and had not seen any benefits of the merger for NasDem.
Surya Paloh dismissed the rumour of merging NasDem Party with Gerindra Party. Meanwhile, NasDem’s deputy chairman Saan Mustopa admitted he was surprised by the information. He refrained from calling the merger issue of the two parties a merger or acquisition, instead using “fusion” as the official term.
Saan opined that merging the two parties is a reasonable idea, especially since it happened in 1973. Compared to that time, he assessed that the current merger idea of the two parties is more difficult to realise due to differences in party philosophies.
“For example, regarding the context of ideology, context of identity, party existence, because building or founding each party, the respective founders certainly have idealism and ideas in different contexts,” he said at the DPR Complex in Jakarta on Monday, 13 April 2026.