Posts falsely claim Indonesia's ruling party 'picks former Jakarta governor as VP candidate'

"Ms Megawati officially announces Ganjar and Ahok as the presidential and vice-presidential candidate pair," says Indonesian-language text superimposed on this video, posted on TikTok on June 8, 2023.

The video has been watched more than 206,000 times.

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Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on June 21, 2023

Megawati refers to Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman of Indonesia's ruling party PDI-P and former Indonesian president (archived link).

The video displays photos of Megawati, Ganjar Pranowo -- PDI-P's presidential candidate -- and former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaya Purnama, nicknamed Ahok, along with the PDI-P emblem (archived link here, here and here). 

The Indonesian-language audio in the 59-second clip consists of two recognisable parts.

Translated into English, the first 16 seconds of the video, a woman's voice says: "By saying 'in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful', we announce Ganjar Pranowo as the presidential candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle," or PDI-P. 

In the remaining part of the video, from the 0:17 mark onwards, the same voice says: "He is now a cadre of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. His name is ... Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok ..."

The claim is also shared in videos on TikTok here and here, on YouTube here, and on Facebook here in June 2023, racking up more than 806,000 views combined. 

However, the claim is false. 

No running mate announced

PDI-P announced Ganjar's presidential candidacy on April 21, 2023, according to the party's website and an Instagram post on the same day (archived links here and here).

An online search found that, as of June 30, 2023, PDI-P has yet to publicly and officially name his running mate.

On June 22, 2023, Ahok's aide Sakti Budiono told AFP via WhatsApp that the claim was a "hoax".

PDI-P senior politician Andreas Hugo Pareira also told AFP via WhatsApp on the same day that the party had not announced Ganjar's running mate.

Unrelated speeches

AFP found the audio excerpts were taken from two separate, unrelated speeches made by Megawati in April 2023 and August 2019.

The first part was taken from a PDI-P event when Megawati announced Ganjar as her party's presidential candidate on April 21, 2023.

It corresponds to Megawati's speech heard at the 35:49 mark of a Kompas TV video broadcasting the announcement event (archived link).

Megawati's announcement of Ganjar's candidacy was also reported by local news outlet Tribunnews here (archived link). 

Meanwhile, the second part of the clip's audio is taken from a Megawati speech she made at a party congress on August 8, 2019, where she talked about Ahok joining the PDI-P.

It corresponds to what Megawati says in this Kompas TV video, starting from the 0:02 mark (archived link). 

The same speech was also captured in this video, posted on local broadcaster Metro TV's YouTube channel on the same day (archived link).