Prabowo Had Better Pick Democrat Running Mate

Jakarta (Antara) - Prabowo Subianto, presidential candidate for the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, had better pick his running mate from the Democrat Party for the July 9 poll, a youth movement suggested. The coalition of Gerindra, Democrat and a number of political parties is interesting development, chief of Forum for the Extended Family of Indonesian Student Youth Movement (FKB KAPPI) 1966 Bambang Heryanto said here on Sunday. "They'd better unite to build constructive and permanent coalition," he said. On the Democrat's presidential convention, he said with the party likely to finish fourth in the April 9 legislative election with around 10 percent of the votes, the party is unlikely to nominate its own presidential candidate. The most possible thing to do for the Democrat is changing the presidential convention into vice presidential one. Participant of the presidential convention Dahlan Iskan who won the most votes in the convention deserves to be Prabowo's running mate, he said. "Under these present circumstances, I think it is fair for the Democrat to nominate a vice presidential candidate rather than presidential candidate," he said. During his two terms of office, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been able to run a presidential system by forming a coalition of several parties, he said. "This will strengthen the proposed permanent coalition and attract middle-ranked parties to join the coalition in order to continue the programs of the previous government," he said. (*) Reporting by Budi Setiawanto