TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A number of political observer hoped that the PDIP (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) National Working Meeting can produce alternative presidential candidates, such as Joko Widodo among others. They said that support for these alternative presidential candidates is important to maintain the party's electability above 20 percent.
"The big theme is changes. If they do not respond to the change, they can get anti-climax," said a general election observer, Ray Rangkuti, Friday, December 6, 2013. Ray said that PDIP has no reason not to nominate Jokowi as a presidential candidate. "If they don't nominate Jokowi, it's not suitable for them to brand themselves as a 'party of changes'," he said.
Ray estimated that without Jokowi, the electability of PDIP will drop. "It reaches 20 percent at most, but it can also drop," he said.
As for the chairwoman of PDIP, he said that Megawati cannot boost the electability of the party, as a survey showed that Megawati's electability has continued to decrease and get stuck at only 8 percent.
FEBRIANA FIRDAUS