Noticias

Amid concerns that voter turnout will dwindle in the 2014 elections, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has livened up its public relations campaign.

KPU commissioner Sigit Pamungkas said the election body was making efforts to cut red tape and redundant bureaucracy.

“We have totally reworked our plan for distributing information regarding the elections. We are trying not to look too formal and bureaucratic. Now, we are trying to be more entertainment-centric,” he said over the weekend.

The Constitutional Court has predicted that the number of election disputes in the 2014 general election will tend to decline compared to the previous election.

“We expect a reduction because the number of political parties contesting this year’s election is lower than in the 2009 election, in which 36 political parties took part,” said court chairman Hamdan Zoelva in Yogyakarta on Saturday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Former vice president Jusuf Kalla said that he would decide whether or not to run for president after the April 9 legislative election.

“Let us wait for the result of the legislative election. Let’s see which parties meet the presidential election threshold,” Kalla said as quoted by Antara news agency on Tuesday.

Kalla declined to comment on the prospect of being paired with Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

“The most important thing now is to develop the nation and if one of the ways is by running for president than I would certainly do it,” Kalla said.

The Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party is mulling whether to pair chief patron Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto with National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman and Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, to run in the upcoming presidential race.

Lawmaker Martin Hutabarat, a member of Gerindra’s board of patrons, said on Wednesday that the party considered Hatta to be an excellent running mate for Prabowo in the elections.

“PAN chairman Hatta Rajasa is among individuals we are considering as vice-presidential candidates for Prabowo,” Martin said.

A new public opinion poll has found the majority of Jakartans are not in favor of Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s presidential nomination.

The Jakarta-based National Survey Institute (LSN) found that 72.2 percent of respondents disapproved of Jokowi’s running in the 2014 presidential election.

The LSN interviewed 790 respondents between Jan. 10 and 24 in Jakarta’s five municipalities and regencies for the survey.

The National Mandate Party said on Tuesday that it was not expecting to nominate a presidential candidate in the upcoming election, and that it was considering a vice-presidential berth attached to Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) head Prabowo Subianto’s potenial candidacy.

A rare meeting this week between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prabowo Subianto, one of the front-runners to replace him next year, has rekindled long-running speculation about a possible coalition between the two former Army generals’ parties.

The meeting took place behind closed doors on Tuesday morning at the State Palace, with Prabowo, the founder and chief patron of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), telling reporters afterward that he and the president had seen eye-to-eye on many of the economic and social issues affecting the country.

The leadership of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has said it is convinced Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will not be tempted by an offer from a rival political party to nominate him for the 2014 presidential election.

PDI-P central board member Maruarar Sirait said Jokowi would not jump ship even if he was not nominated by the party.

“Jokowi is a politician who values loyalty to his political party. So there’s no way [he would join a rival party,” Maruarar told reporters on Monday.

The latest political surveys have placed the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) as the most electable party in the country’s upcoming legislative election.

The country’s biggest opposition party, which was ranked third after the ruling Democratic Party (PD) and the Golkar Party in early 2012, is now leading the pack, with many pollsters attributing its rising popularity to scandals hitting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s party and the meteoric rise of PDI-P politician and Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.