Jokowi responds positively to possible Golkar coalition

JAKARTA (THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - 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," Mr Joko told reporters in Bandung, West Java on Saturday, as reported by tempo.co.

However, he 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 emphasised 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 regretted supporting rival ticket Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa after seeing that most credible survey institutions showed that the Jokowi-Kalla ticket was in the lead.

A quick count by the Cyrus Network and the Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that Jokowi-Kalla was leading the presidential election with 47.17 per cent, whereas Prabowo-Hatta had only garnered 42.15 per cent.

Furthermore, Golkar politician Nusron Wahid said that the party would try to unseat chairman Aburizal Bakrie due to the decision to support Mr Prabowo.

If successful, Golkar would then likely join the PDI-P and its coalition partners - the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party 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.

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