The ruling political party of Indonesia, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), has chosen Ganjar Pranowo, the popular governor of central Java, as its candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
Megawati Sukarnoputri, former president and daughter of Indonesia’s founding president Sukarno and head of the PDI-P, said the decision to name Ganjar “is not an easy task to implement.”
Tukiman Taruna Sayoga, a lecturer in the Catholic Soegijapranata University in Semarang, said the choice is “correct and right.”
He described Ganjar as “a nationalist figure, very humble, and hospitable and always doing good things.”
“I fully endorse him to become our next president and I strongly advocate that the whole national Indonesian people will endorse his candidacy,” said Sayoga.
Bambang Munadjat, a Muslim and an alumnus of the Loyola High School, described Ganjar as having “guts to take risks to implement the party’s national goal and objective” and “is also a populist.”
Meanwhile, Sukarnoputri asked her daughter Puan Maharani, speaker of the House of Representatives, to lead the election campaign.
The run-off for the presidential election is set on June 26, 2024.
Ganjar is a former special forces commander who served under Suharto and has lost twice to Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in past elections.
A poll conducted by the Indonesia Survey Institute (LSI) showed that Prabowo had 30.3 percent of the votes.
