Jakarta. The National Awakening Party (PKB) formally endorsed Anies Baswedan as a candidate for the Jakarta gubernatorial election on Thursday.

Anies was the Jakarta governor from 2017 to 2022 and he is expected to seek reelection after being defeated in the presidential election.

He came to the office of PKB’s Jakarta chapter to receive endorsement documents from the party’s local leader Hasbiallah Ilyas.

“We nominate Mr. Anies for the Jakarta governor because we see him as the standard bearer for a Jakarta leader who cares about equality,” Hasbiallah said.

He alleged that Jakarta “has been in trouble since Anies retired” in October 2022, noting that the city government no longer provided education subsidies and stopped paying incentives for Mosque assistants.

In his acceptance speech, Anies thanked PKB for the support and confirmed his readiness to contest the November 27 poll.

“I thank you for the trust and mandate for me to bring equality in Jakarta. This will become our focus,” Anies said.

PKB needs to build a coalition with other parties to get Anies eligible to contest. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said earlier they are very likely to nominate Anies again in the Jakarta election.

Add as a preferred source on Google +