Prabowo-Samad Pair Can Ably Compete Against Jokowi

Jakarta (Antara) - Public discussions are rife on the potent pairing of Prabowo Subianto with Abraham Samad in the upcoming presidential election, which is believed to offer tough competition to the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla pair, claimed an observer. "To be able to compete with Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, Prabowo should have a superior running mate, and in my view, Abraham Samad is the right candidate," Said Salahudin, a political observer from the University of Indonesia (UI), stated here on Tuesday. He pointed out that the electability and popularity of Abraham Samad surpassed that of the other political party leaders, including Aburizal Bakri of the Golkar party. "Samad's popularity is even higher than that of Mahfud or Jusuf Kalla. If Prabowo selects Samad as his running mate, I believe that he will have a great opportunity to trounce over Jokowi," Director of the People's Synergy for Democracy in Indonesia (Sigma) reiterated. When questioned about his opinion on the Prabowo Subianto-Aburizal Bakri pairing, Salahudin elucidated that with the current scenario of two presidential candidates without running mates, Prabowo's position was still under Jokowi. "If Jokowi is paired with Mahfud or Kalla, while Prabowo is paired with Aburizal, then the gap will get even wider for Prabowo to bridge," he remarked. According to him, the electability of Mahfud and Kalla were higher than that of Aburizal, thus making it harder for the later to win. On a somber note, he added that if Golkar is divided and undecided as it was in the previous elections, then it will not be favorable for Prabowo. "If Prabowo is paired with the leaders of other political parties, such as the National Mandate Party (PAN) and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), it will remain ineffective. Mahfud and Kalla are more salable to the voters rather than the leaders from these two political parties," Salahudin emphasized. (*)