Tempo News: Prabowo Ready for 2019 Election, Party Member Says

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Gerindra Party Chairman Prabowo Subianto has been keeping a close watch on his eating habits and also routinely exercises. According to Gerindra Deputy Secretary-General Andre Rosiade, being in such good shape, Prabowo is ready for the 2019 General Elections. In addition, the party chairman has been building up party infrastructure over the past four years.

Unlike in 2014, Andre claimed, Gerindra is better prepared for the upcoming general elections. The increased number of votes for Gerindra in the 2014 General Election compared to 2009 has had an impact on increased party activity in the provinces.

Four years ago, they only had 26 seats in the House of Representatives (DPR) and about 700 seats in Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD). Those seats were the result of 4.6 million people who voted for Gerindra in 2009. Today, Gerindra is looking forward to the general elections with its 73 seats in the DPR and thousands of seats in the DPRDs, which resulted from 14.7 million votes received in 2014. In the 2014 presidential election, 62.5 million people voted for Prabowo, 8.4 million less than that received by Joko Widodo, who was elected president.

Read: Jokowi Above Prabowo in Pollmark Survey

Nearly every week, hundreds of Gerindra members from the provinces take part in a 'party school' in Hambalang. These members, mostly regional Gerindra party officials, stay in barracks for a week. Waking up at 4:30 am, they are taught different subjects until evening. "To train them in discipline, they learn how to line up in formation," said Habiburokhman, a member of Gerindra's Board of Patrons.

In October last year, the cadres produced by those trainings were gathered at the Sentul International Convention Center, Bogor, in a national conference event. During this event, Gerindra Secretary-general ahmad Muzani put Prabowo on the spot with a question about his willingness to run as a presidential candidate in 2019. "If you all believe that becoming president can be a means for struggle, I am ready to become a presidential candidate," said Prabowo, as was imitated by Muzani.

These are the only words to date spoken by this former Commander General of the Special Forces Command to his supporters regarding his intention to run in 2019. Seven months before the registration of presidential candidates, Prabowo has not yet openly declared his bid for the presidency. Gerindra has not officially declared they will support him. According to Andre Rosiade, there is a good chance that Gerindra will make the announcement on the party’s anniversary this coming February 6.

Read: New Elections, Old Rivals

Party cadres believe that Prabowo’s electability is not far behind Jokowi’s. In an internal survey, according to Fadli Zon, the electability of Prabowo and Jokowi is just between 10 and 15 percent apart. Fadli said that he did not remember the exact figure.

This gap differs from the polling done by some survey institutions, including Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC). In early January, SMRC released the electability figures on some individuals who have the potential to run in 2019. Of those names, Jokowi was selected by 38.9 percent of the respondents, while 10.5 percent chose Prabowo. This gap is even larger if the only candidates running in the 2019 presidential race are only Jokowi and Prabowo. Under that polling scenario, out of 1,220 respondents, 64.1 percent chose Jokowi, while just 27.1 percent chose Prabowo.

Interestingly, in that survey, 66.9 percent of respondents approved of Jokowi and Prabowo being running mates in the upcoming election. Fadli Zon feels that this is not unusual. According to him, in addition to survey respondents, some people in the Presidential Palace also want Prabowo to be Jokowi’s running mate in 2019. "There was an envoy who conveyed the message," said Fadli, without giving any names.

Read the full article in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine