JAKARTA: The Democratic Party, suffering from a leadership crisis and diminishing popularity, due to graft cases that plagued its members during the second term of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), is seeking a comeback with the unexpected nomination of former first lady Ani Yudhoyono as the party’s 2019 presidential candidate.

The move has been met with derision from some segments of the public.

The ad campaign for Ani emerged on Tuesday in the middle of SBY’s 13-day tour of Java, which started on March 7.

Some party officials claim the ad is just an expression of aspiration, rather than a formal decision of the party. Some Yudhoyono loyalists, however, say it represents the internal consensus of the party.

Aware that Ani has yet to be considered a potential leader in the political marketplace, staunch SBY supporter and party spokesman Ruhut Sitompul said Ani could surpass incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in popularity in the upcoming 2019 presidential election.

“Politics is all about the last-minute phenomenon. In previous years, no one knew about Jokowi.

“During the tour in Yogyakarta, people said they missed Pak SBY and asked him to run. But if he can’t run, they asked Bu Ani to run. It’s the will of people,” Ruhut said.

Nurhayati Assegaf, another SBY loyalist and deputy chairman of the Democratic Party, said Ani deserved to get the party’s nomination, saying that “she is more than (US presidential Democratic Party frontrunner) Hillary Clinton, so don’t compare her with Hillary.”

“We had similar ambitions for the 2014 presidential election. If SBY is barred from running (for a third time), then why not propose Ibu Ani for the nomination?” Nurhayati asked.

Democratic Party legislator Benny Kabur Harman said that it was too early to discuss Ani’s candidacy in detail as the 2019 election was still three years away.

Dede Yusef, another Democratic Party spokesman, said the party was focused on garnering support to prepare for the elections in 2017 and 2018 and that the party’s central board had not discussed the presidential ticket.

The early nomination of Ani suggests a crisis of leadership at the heart of the Democratic Party following the prosecution of many of its high-profile figures in graft cases during the second term of SBY, said Arya Fernandez, a political analyst with the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

He said it was wrong to compare Ani with Clinton as Ani had only occupied the position of first lady without ever having served in governmental posts such as those occupied by former first lady Clinton.

Clinton served as a New York Senator and the Secretary of State during the presidency of Barack Obama.

Political analyst Gun Gun Heryanto from Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University said Ani had nothing to sell to win political support in the 2019 elections.

“The nomination is just testing the waters to see how the public reacts.

“The most realistic target is to consolidate support at the grassroots level to face the 2017 elections and improve the party’s performance following its failures in the 2015 elections,” Gun said.

He said the recent move by SBY to criticise the government also aimed to increase the party’s popularity.

After winning the 2009 legislative elections with 20.8% of the vote, the Democratic Party only managed to come in fourth place in the 2014 elections with 10.1% of the vote.

SBY also saw his popularity decline after three of his ministers were convicted in graft cases. — The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network/thestar