Indonesia’s presidential candidate Ganjar faces battle to overcome Jokowi’s election betrayal

JAKARTA - As a former governor from outside Indonesia’s political and military elite, Mr Ganjar Pranowo is banking on his populist appeal and folksy charm to stay in the running in the

Feb 14 presidential election,

where he is struggling to make a mark.

With a humble background and affable, man-of-the-people style strikingly similar to two-term President Joko Widodo, Mr Ganjar was a shoo-in to succeed him, buoyed by the assumed backing of the wildly popular incumbent.

But Mr Ganjar’s political clout is now crumbling after Mr Widodo, better known as Jokowi, betrayed his own party and started tacitly campaigning for rival candidate and former military hard man Prabowo Subianto.

Mr Ganjar now finds himself in a tricky spot, tied to a campaign and political vision shaped by Mr Jokowi, but without his crucial support.

Mr Ganjar has shrugged off Mr Jokowi’s overtures to Mr Prabowo as “politics”, responding by doubling down on the populist agenda that won him two terms as governor of Central Java, pledging to create 17 million new jobs, expand social welfare, and boost higher education access for the poor if elected.

The silver-haired son of a policeman whose family ran a mum-and-pop store, the 55-year-old former student activist has served his province for two decades, with two terms each as a lawmaker and governor.

Mr Ganjar built his reputation on pro-poor policies that slashed interest rates on micro-loans, helped farmers buy fertiliser, and mandated civil servants to give 2.5 per cent of their monthly salaries to support health, education and disaster relief programmes.

But some issues have dented his track record, including a controversial call in 2023 to stop Israel from taking part in the Under-20 soccer World Cup, for which Indonesia was subsequently dropped as host. In 2016, he faced widespread protests by farmers against the construction of a cement factory he had approved.

Mr Ganjar has been focusing on an intense grassroots campaign, visiting poor communities and staying overnight in modest village homes. Online, supporters have taken to what they see as his sporty and active image.

“Our strength is to keep moving, meeting people and deploying all the resources we have,” he said in December.

He is still trailing in polls and was a whopping 32 points behind Mr Prabowo in surveys released late last week by Indikator Politik and Lembaga Survei Indonesia, though not far behind the third candidate, former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan.

Under Indonesia’s election rules, if no candidate gets over 50 per cent of the votes, the contest goes to a second round between the top two candidates in June.

Dr James Guild, an adjunct fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said: “At this point, Ganjar’s best hope is to make it to a run-off against Prabowo.

“It will still be a steep uphill climb because Ganjar versus Prabowo would be two continuity candidates competing against one another... that’s a basic political reality that will be hard to overcome.” REUTERS