Jokowi responds positively to possible Golkar coalition

Presidential candidate Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said that he would be glad if the Golkar Party decided to switch teams and support the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla ticket.

"Yes, that would be good, it means that we can work together," Jokowi told reporters in Bandung, West Java on Saturday, as reported by tempo.co.

However, Jokowi said that he could not promise anything to Golkar if it truly planned on joining the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) coalition. He emphasized that there would not be any political transactions within its coalition.

"We have already said  that there will be no conditions," he said.

Previous reports claimed that several Golkar politicians have regretted choosing to support rival ticket Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa after seeing that most credible survey institutions showed that the Jokowi-Kalla ticket were in the lead. 

The quick count by the Cyrus Network and the Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that Jokowi-Kalla were leading the presidential election with 47.17 percent, whereas rivals Prabowo-Hatta had only garnered 42.15 percent.

Furthermore, Golkar politician Nusron Wahid said that the party would try to unseat chairman Aburizal Bakrie due to the decision to support Prabowo. If succeeded, then Golkar would likely join the PDI-P and its coalition partners -- the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Hanura Party -- in the ruling government.

With Golkar in the coalition, it is expected that a Jokowi administration would have a majority in the House of Representatives. (fss)

 

Presidential visit: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono separately receives presidential candidates Joko Widodo (left) and Prabowo Subianto (right) in this composite photo at Yudhoyono's private residence in Cikeas, Bogor, West Java.

 

Jokowi leads at 67%, says ‘Kompas’ exit poll

Kompas research unit indicated on Wednesday in its exit poll that presidential candidate Joko "Jokowi" Widodo was leading the race with 67 percent of the vote against rival Prabowo Subianto, who was indicated to have received 32.23 percent of the vote.

Exit polls are a form of quick counts, where random voters are directly interviewed outside polling stations after voting.

Kompas also indicated the voter turnout was at 75.91 percent