The next election for the governorship of Jakarta won’t take place until 2017, but many supporters of current Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama can’t wait to help their hero prepare for his next political battle.
A group called “Teman Ahok” (Friends of Ahok) has already begun the enormous task of collecting 1 million KTP (ID cards) from Jakarta residents who support Ahok not just running for the capital’s highest office once again but running as an independent without the support or patronage of any of the country’s political parties.
Ahok has expressed interest in running as an independent candidate before. Although he was once a member of Gerindra, he quit over that party’s support for a law that would’ve abolished the public election of regional officials (including the governor of Jakarta).
But to run as an independent candidate for governor of Jakarta requires the ID cards of a million supporters. Even for Ahok, who is generally well-liked for his passionate commitment to improving Jakarta, that might be a tough task.
Which is why “Teman Ahok” is already getting started. They’ve started up a Twitter feed which already has over 20,000 followers and a website, www.temanahok.com, where citizens can download a form which they can use to submit their KTP in support of Ahok’s independent run.
Ahok met some of the founders of “Teman Ahok” on Wednesday and although he said he was thankful for their efforts he seemed unsure whether he still wanted to go through with running as an independent.
“It depends, we’ll see later,” Ahok said at City Hall yesterday as quoted by MetroTV.
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