Surprises and Opportunities in 2019 Elections

KOMPAS/ALIF ICHWAN

at the General Election Commission (KPU) Building, Jakarta.

Exciting, lively and shocking. Never has the declaration of presidential and vice presidential candidates been as exuberant as this year. Both pairs turned out to be filled with surprises. There was a little surprise from Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s coalition and a huge shock from Prabowo Subianto’s.

The little surprise from Jokowi’s coalition was that influential cleric Ma’ruf Amin was ultimately chosen as his running mate, instead of senior politician Mahfud MD who reportedly had been told on Thursday (9/8/2018) morning to prepare himself to be announced as Jokowi’s VP candidate. In a live event at Kompas TV at 5 p.m., Mahfud was shown to be waiting with a group of campaign volunteers. He was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt, which Jokowi often wears when meeting with party leaders in his coalition.