A Golkar Party politician claims five major political parties will set up a grand coalition to nominate a gubernatorial candidate to challenge incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama, who has announced his plan to run as an independent candidate.

The five parties are the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Gerindra Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Golkar and the United Development Party (PPP), said Golkar's Jakarta branch secretary Zaiuddin in Jakarta on Thursday.

'Golkar has communicated with the PDI-P, Gerindra, the PKS and the PPP,' Zainuddin said, adding that he had just met with PDI-P Jakarta branch chairman Boy Sadikin to discuss the nomination.

Zainuddin stressed that his party would not support Ahok in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election because he had declared himself as an independent candidate.

'The wish of political parties is to nominate a suitable candidate. Golkar will support any figure, who has been agreed upon [by the planned coalition],' he said.

The five political parties control 70 out of 106 seats in the Jakarta City Council. With 25 seats, PDI-P is the largest political party in the city, followed by Gerindra with 15 seats, the PKS with 11 seats, the PPP with 10 seats and Golkar with nine seats.

He believed the collation would be able to increase the electability of the candidate that would be nominated.

Ahok has declared he will run as an independent candidate and has appointed Heru Budi Hartono, a civil servant working for the Jakarta administration, as his deputy candidate. Currently, Ahok's supporters, calling themselves Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok), are collecting photocopies of Jakarta residents' identity cards to support his bid.

Under the current law, Ahok needs to collect about 533,000 photocopies of IDs to be allowed to run in the gubernatorial election as an independent. (bbn)