Not Cak Imin, This is the VP Candidate Considered Most Suitable to Accompany Anies Baswedan According to Citizens

Presidential candidate Anies Baswedan will choose the General Chairperson of the National Awakening Party (PKB), Muhaimin Iskandar, also known as Cak Imin, as his running mate for the 2024 Presidential Election.

Anies's spokesperson and member of the Coalition for Unity's Team 8, Sudirman Said, stated that Anies had undergone a lengthy process to determine his running mate. The mechanism for selecting the running mate was agreed upon in the cooperation charter of the three parties: the Democratic Party, PKS, and Nasdem. He said that clause 3 of the cooperation charter stipulated that Anies, as the presidential candidate, was tasked with choosing his running mate.

"This task is fully understood by the presidential candidate as a selection process because, ultimately, the political parties that nominate the candidates have the authority to determine and register the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, not the presidential candidate himself," said Sudirman in his official statement on Friday (1/9/2023).

Sudirman mentioned that Anies had met with several parties and reviewed several proposed running mate candidates. Sudirman also acknowledged that Anies had considered the Chairman of the Democratic Party, Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, also known as AHY, as a running mate.

However, the announcement of AHY's name received different responses from the parties. Sudirman said that some parties did not want to rush, while others wanted an immediate declaration.

"This difference of opinion among the parties has not found common ground. Because there has been no agreement, the process of determining the vice-presidential candidate cannot be decided," said Sudirman.

Separately, Surya Paloh stated that the Anies-Cak Imin pairing for the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election was not yet official.

"The possibility of that happening is there, but I think it hasn't been formalized as such, so we'll wait for developments in the next day or two," said Surya Paloh, as quoted from *Katadata*, Thursday night (31/8/2023).

Who is the most suitable running mate for Anies, according to the public?

The Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) presented 10 names of prospective vice-presidential candidates who were most frequently chosen by the public to accompany Anies Baswedan in the 2024 election. This survey was conducted well before Anies declared his running mate.

The results showed that AHY was considered the most suitable to accompany Anies, according to respondents. The Chairman of the Democratic Party had an electability rating of 22.2%, the highest among the other nine figures.

"AHY, according to the people we surveyed, is the most suitable for Anies," said LSI Executive Director Djayadi Hanan in an online press conference on Wednesday (30/8/2023).

Next, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno was in second place with an electability rating of 21.4%. Then, Khofifah Indar Parawansa followed in third place with 9.2% of the vote.

Cak Imin was included in the list, but his electability rating as Anies's potential running mate was quite low, at only 2.6%.

The LSI survey was conducted from August 3-9, 2023, through face-to-face interviews, involving 1,220 respondents from across Indonesia. All respondents were 17 years of age or older, or married.

The survey's margin of error was approximately 2.9% at a 95% confidence level.

Feeling Betrayed

The Secretary General of the Democratic Party, Teuku Riefky Harsya, considered the Anies-Cak Imin pairing a betrayal of the Coalition for Unity Charter. Therefore, the Democrats will hold a High Council meeting today to discuss their final stance on supporting Anies.

"The series of events that have occurred constitute a betrayal of the spirit of change, a betrayal of the Coalition Charter that has been agreed upon by the three parties," said Teuku in a press release on Thursday (31/8/2023).

According to Teuku, Anies betrayed what he had said about choosing AHY as his running mate. The Democrats claim that Anies himself had agreed to choose AHY.