JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – Three more candidates invited to participate in the primary of President SBY’s Democratic Party have rejected the invitations.

They are Mahfud MD (former Chief Justice of Constitutional Court and former PKB politician), Rustriningsih (former Vice Governor of Central Java and PDI-P politician), and Rusdi Kirana (owner of Lion Air).

As reported earlier, Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo (popular Jakarta Governor and PDI-P politician) and Jusuf Kalla (former Vice President and former Chairman of Golkar Party) had already rejected the invitation to join the Democratic Party’s primary.

Some political observers viewed those rejections as a warning to Democratic Party that could trigger other figures to pull out from the primary.

The transparency is the biggest issue questioned among participants and as well as public, especially about the mechanism of the primary to choose the winner and also the rights and obligations of whoever won the primary.

Democratic Party, however, stated that the party will continue the primary with the remaining candidates already interviewed to join the primary.

Rully Charis, Spokesperson of the Committee of Democratic Party’s primary, said that the committee will formally announce the eleventh participants of the primary this afternoon.

Those eleventh candidates are as follows;

Dino Patti Jalal (Indonesian Ambassador for United State)
Irman Gusman (Speaker of Regional Representatives Council/DPD)
Hayono Isman (Democratic Party politician)
Endriartono Sutanto (former Military Commander and former politician of Nasdem Party)
Anies Baswedan (Rector of Paramadina University)
Gita Wirjawan (Minister of Trade)
Sinyo Harry Sarundajang (North Sulawesi Governor and Democratic Party politician)
Pramono Edhie Wibowo (brother in law of President SBY and Democratic Party politician)
Ali Masykur Musa (member of the Supreme Audit Agency/BPK and former PKB politician)
Marzuki Alie (House Speaker and Democratic Party politician)
Dahlan Iskan (Minister of State-Owned Enterprises). (haryantos@yosefardi.biz)