JAKARTA – The 2024 General Election of President and Vice President is starting to show a polemic.
The Demokrat Party, which is part of the Perubahan untuk Persatuan (Change for Unity) Coalition which supports presidential candidate Anies Baswedan, withdrew its support.
This follows an agreement on political cooperation between the Nasdem Party and PKB to nominate the pair Anies-Muhaimin Iskandar (Cak Imin) as the presidential-vice presidential candidate.
The cooperation, according to the press statement by the Secretary General of the Demokrat Party, Teuku Riefky Harsya, which was received by The Editor on Thursday (31/8) evening, was carried out unilaterally at the initiative of the General Chairperson of Nasdem, Surya Paloh.
And Anies, who was previously predicted to partner with the General Chair of Demokrat Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) as a presidential-vice presidential candidate, also agreed to this cooperation.
This condition was then referred to by Teuku as “something unexpected and unbelievable happened”, with a “fundamental and surprising” change in the midst of the finalization and preparation of the declaration.
He also called the series of events that occurred around the agreement nothing but a form of “betrayal”.
“Betrayal of the spirit of change, betrayal of the Coalition Charter which has been agreed upon by the three political parties, also betrayal of what has been said by Presidential Candidate Anies Baswedan himself, who has been given the mandate to lead the Coalition,” he wrote.
Overcoming this situation, the Upper House of the Demokrat Party held a meeting on Friday (1/9) to determine the next steps.
The meeting resulted in two matters, namely withdrawing support for Anies Baswedan as a presidential candidate and withdrawing from the Perubahan untuk Persatuan Coalition.
“Demokrat is no longer in the Perubahan untuk Persatuan Coalition because there has been a breach of the agreement that was built so far,” said the Party High Council Secretary of Demokrat Andi Mallarangeng.
