TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Democratic Party executive Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) did not deny rumors which suggest that his recent meeting with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) discussed future party coalitions.

“I absolutely cannot counter public’s speculation, seeing that this involves politics,” said Agus at the Political, Law, and Security Affairs Ministry headquarters on Wednesday, March 7.

However, AHY explained that the main purpose of the meeting was to invite President Jokowi to attend the Democratic Party national leaders’ meeting. He has also met with other public figures such as Minister Wiranto and PDIP chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The Democratic Party meeting is set to be held to act as a preparation in facing the upcoming regional and general elections, which also include several talks to have AHY run as a presidential candidate.

Read: AHY Ready to Take Role as Third 2019 Presidential Candidate

Several pollsters suggest that AHY could possibly be a vice presidential candidate after he attracted the public’s interest for his participation in the Jakarta Gubernatorial election. Some pollsters also collected data based on the possibility of AHY partnering with Jokowi in the 2019 election.

Indobarometer suggests that Jokowi-AHY can manage to produce a 38.6 percent electability, which is higher than other scenarios such as Jokowi-Gatot Nurmantyo (38.4 percent), and Jokowi–Tito Karnavian (37 percent, and Jokowi-Ridwan Kamil (37.5 percent). The survey involved 1,200 respondents from 34 provinces.

Meanwhile, Poltracking Indonesia on January 7-February 3 announced that Jokowi-AHY achieved 43 percent electability if the pair is faced with Prabowo Subianto-Anies Baswedan (30.9) percent.

PolMark reported that if Jokowi is paired with AHY, the electability is at 6.8 percent, which is higher than if Jokowi is paired with Sri Mulyani at of 3.2 percent electability. PolMark conducted its survey on 2,600 respondents based on the multistage random sampling on November 13-25, 2017.

Populi Center also saw similar results when pairing Jokowi and AHY at 50.8 percent electability among 1,200 respondents.

Muhammad Hendartyo