Jakarta. An executive of the National Awakening Party (PKB) criticized the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) on Wednesday for nominating its former chairman, Sohibul Iman, as a running mate for Anies Baswedan in the upcoming Jakarta gubernatorial election.

Although PKB also plans to support Anies as the gubernatorial candidate, PKS’s decision to pair Anies with its own executive could hinder a potential coalition, said Syaiful Huda, deputy secretary-general of PKB.

"In my opinion, that’s a blunder. This kind of political communication only closes doors to other parties willing to establish a partnership," Syaiful said in Jakarta.

He also questioned PKS’s sudden change of strategy, noting that the Muslim-based party had previously announced Sohibul as its sole gubernatorial candidate before reversing the decision within two days.

"It only demonstrates indecisiveness among my colleagues at PKS. First, they announced Mr. Sohibul Iman as the sole gubernatorial candidate, but two days later, the PKS chairman corrected the decision and recklessly paired Brother Anies with Sohibul," Syaiful said.

PKB was the first party to declare Anies as their potential candidate for the Jakarta election on November 27. However, both PKB and PKS need to form a coalition to meet the threshold for nominating a candidate due to an insufficient number of seats in the Jakarta Legislative Council.

The two parties collaborated during the presidential election in February, along with the National Democratic Party (Nasdem), with Anies as their candidate. However, Anies lost to Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto.

At that time, PKB joined the pro-Anies coalition at the last minute, securing the running mate position for its chairman, Muhaimin Iskandar, without prior notice to PKS.

PKS also supported Anies in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, which he won, though his running mate was not from PKS.

In a recent internal gathering, PKS leaders vowed to place their cadre as a running mate as a main condition for supporting Anies’s reelection bid in Jakarta.

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