Indonesian election race heats up as Megawati chooses team

Presidential elections next February are shaping up to be a bitter battle between feuding political dynasties.

Ganjar Pranowo and Mahfud MD at the launch of their joint candidacy in Jakarta on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Indonesia’s chief security minister Mahfud MD will contest next February’s elections as vice- presidential candidate for the ruling political party in a race that could pit him against President Joko Widodo’s eldest son.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) matriarch and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri ended months of feverish speculation on Wednesday by revealing Mahfud as the running mate for the party’s presidential pick, former central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo.

The announcement comes amid a deepening rift with Jokowi (as he is known), a card-carrying member of the PDIP who has signalled his support for former rival and current defence minister Prabowo Subianto.

Prabowo has hinted he may choose Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the president’s son and mayor of Solo, as his running mate after the Constitutional Court on Monday passed controversial legal amendments to eligibility criteria that freed the way for his candidacy.

Megawati, daughter of Indonesian independence father Sukarno, touted Mahfud’s experience in the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. The constitutional law expert is also an influential figure in Nahdlatul Ulama, an Indonesian Islamic group which represents some 80 million potential voters.

“Professor Mahfud is known among the people as a defender of the underprivileged. I told him, we have all these laws. What‘s the point of the rule of law if we stay silent?” she said at an event attended by party leaders from the ruling coalition.

A senior member of Jokowi’s cabinet — and Jokowi’s VP pick ahead of the 2019 election which was vetoed by coalition leaders in favour of Islamic cleric Maruf Amin — Mahfud pledged to battle rising corruption which he blamed on the “liberalisation of politics and the economy”.

The February 14 elections are tipped to be a three-way race between team Ganjar and Mahfud, former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and his moderate Islamist running mate Muhaimin Iskandar, and Prabowo Subianto who has yet to announce his vice presidential candidate pick.

Additional reporting: Amanda Hodge