JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – Gita Irawan Wirjawan, Minister of Trade Affairs, plans to declare his presidential bid for next year’s presidential race in September.
“There is a plan Pak Gita will declare himself as president candidate in September after he was named as participant of Democratic Party’s primary,” said Kastorius Sinaga, big supporter of Minister Gita, on Monday (Aug 19).
Kastorius Sinaga, one of leaders of Democratic Party and leader of GITA (a voluntary organization supporting Gita’s bid), is optimistic that Gita will win Democratic Party’s primary and would be nominated as president candidate from the party.
Kastorius said the networks of GITA (Gerakan Cinta Tanah Air) will be established throughout the country as the organization will be used as a political machine of Gita’s bid.
In the upcoming Democratic Party’s primary, Gita will likely compete with his rivals such as General (ret) Pramono Edhie Wibowo, brother in law of President SBY); General (ret) Endriartono Sutarto, former Military Commander and leader of Nasdem Party; General (ret) Djoko Santoso, former Military Commander; Chairul Tanjung, businessman and owner of CT Corp; Marzuki Alie, House Speaker and leader of Democratic Party; Mahfud MD, former Chief of Constitutional Court; Dahlan Iskan, Minister of SOEs; Irman Gusman, Speaker of Regional Representatives Council (DPD); Dino Patti Jalal, Ambassador to US; etc.
Gita’s electability, actually, is not yet convincing enough and far below the electability of popular Jakarta Governor Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, as shown by various recent surveys.
And importantly to note, the Democratic Party itself has no guarantee for nominating a president candidate in next year’s presidential race. Various recent surveys on the party is showing that its electability continue to crash into less than 10%, far below from 25% of presidential threshold. (haryantos@yosefardi.biz)