Noticias

Supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) presidential candidate, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, have distributed leaflets containing the endorsement by the party’s chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri of the Jakarta governor.

“I, Megawati Soekarnoputri, the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, mandate party official Ir. Joko Widodo to be the presidential candidate of the PDI-P,” said the leaflet distributed by the party supporters in Jakarta on Sunday, as quoted by Antara.

A coalition of Jakarta-based NGOs has called on presidential aspirants to publicly share their plans on how to increase tax revenue, as the country is in dire need of public support to finance its future development.

The coalition, known as the Independent Commission for State Budget (KAI), said presidential hopefuls, for example, must reveal their target on the level of tax revenue-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio, or tax ratio, should they become official candidates.

A group of lawyers announced its plan to file a lawsuit against Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo over his decision to run in the upcoming presidential race.

The Advocacy Team for a New Jakarta, which had supported Jokowi during the 2012 gubernatorial election, acknowledged it could not hide its disappointment that Jokowi would be leaving Jakarta without fulfilling his campaign promises.

Jakarta. Indonesia’s raucous election season kicks off on Sunday with the promise of a fresh style of leadership in the world’s third largest democracy, whose economic promise has been sapped by rampant graft, confusing policy and weak rule.

An uncertain election outlook abruptly changed on Friday when the main PDI-P opposition party named the hugely popular governor of Jakarta as its candidate for July’s presidential election. That lifted even further its chances of dominating the parliamentary election on April 9.

The Golkar Party accounted for the highest number of campaign advertisements in the media from March 1-11, despite the official campaign period only beginning on Sunday, a watchdog said.

Idy Muzayyad, a member of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), the government’s media watchdog, said on Friday that his office, working with the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), had counted more than a thousand political ads on TV during the 11-day period.

Jakarta. The country’s main opposition party has tagged Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo as its presidential candidate for the July 9 election, in a surprise announcement on Friday that brings an end to months of speculation over whether party chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri would seek another stab at the presidency.

The Democratic Party will announce its presidential candidate by the end of April or two weeks after the legislative election.

“Wait until the end of April for the results [of the convention],” Democratic Party executive chairman Syarifuddin Hasan said on Saturday as quoted by Antara News Agency.

Syarifuddin was confident that the party would have a presidential candidate that would suit the public, adding that the convention’s participants were not very popular despite being competent.

Gerindra Party chairman Suhardi said his party still believed in its presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto despite the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) decision to name popular Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo as its candidate.

“The Jokowi candidacy doesn't bother us as we still have confidence  in our own candidate. We believe that Prabowo has won the people’s heart,” Suhardi said as quoted by tempo.co on Saturday.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) is ready to become a major party to help lead the country through a combination of its nationalistic and religious forces, head of the PKB's central leadership board, Marwan Jafar, said on Friday.

Marwan said that his party was prepared to play a role in national development.

“We are ready to help lead Indonesia because from a mass organization point of view it represents the Nahdlatul Ulama (the country's largest Muslim organization) and from a political point of view it embodies the PKB," Marwan said as quoted by Antara news agency.