Suara.com – General Chair of the National Awakening Party (PKN) Anas Urbaningrum opened up regarding Anies Baswedan’s cancellation of choosing Democratic Party Chair Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono or AHY as vice presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election. He said that if Anies chose AHY it would be a declaration of defeat for Anies.
On the other hand, if Anies Baswedan really declares AHY as his vice presidential candidate, in the end it will be a Democratic victory. So what’s the reason?
This was said by Anas Urbaningrum on the Akbar Faizal Uncensored YouTube channel which was uploaded on Monday (27/11/2023). He told what he had heard from rumors or internal party political discussions, including within the Change Coalition, which at that time still had Democrats.
He said, at that time the Democratic Party was very confident that their general chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) would be chosen as Anies Baswedan’s running mate.
However, in September 2023, Anies’ choice fell on Muhaimin Iskandar or Cak Imin who suddenly joined the Change Coalition with PKB. In fact, PKB has been working closely with Gerindra for a long time.
On the other hand, the election of Cak Imin as Anies’ vice presidential candidate made the Democrats change direction. Left the Change Coalition and ultimately chose to join the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM) which nominated Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka as presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Why are the Democrats eager to nominate AHY as Anies’ vice presidential candidate?
For Anas, Anies’ decision not to choose AHY as vice presidential candidate was the right choice. He believes that this is because there is no prospect of victory if Anies-AHY unite.
“This is me as an observer…. At that time I heard a conversation that was essentially like this… If at that time Anies AHY was declared, the conversation was that the declaration was a declaration of Anies’ defeat,” said Anas Urbaningrum.
“At the same time, it was a declaration of victory for the Democrats. Because in that discussion, yes, if it were Anies-AHY, there would be no prospect of winning the presidential election,” he continued.
Then, Anas also explained his analysis of why the Democratic Party was so determined to push AHY to become Anies’ vice presidential candidate. One of them is related to the coat tail effect.
“But for the Democrats, if AHY becomes vice presidential candidate, the Democrats can take the coattails effect of the presidential election so that the legislative election is safe,” said Anas.
Second, if AHY really pairs up with Anies then it will be a further political investment for President SBY’s son on a bigger stage.
“The second is a further political investment for AHY to appear on a stage that is bigger than the previous DKI Pilkada, the DKI stage used to have electoral significance,” added Anas Urbaningrum.