He arrived at the Sultan Convention Center at 10.45am, welcomed by around 2,900 supporters that have been ready at the venue long before his arrival.
Wearing costumes of their political parties that support Jokowi, people jostled to be able to shake hands with him or have their pictures taken with him.
The atmosphere was lively when their campaign song was heard to welcome Jokowi.
On the stage that was set up for the occasion Jokowi sat with supporting political party leaders including his National Campaign Team chief, Erick Thohir and South Sumatra governor Hetman Deru.
Others include Golkar Party general chairman Airlangga Hartarto, senior Indonesia Democratice Party Struggle (PDIP) figure Pramono Anung, political figures from the National Awakening Party (PKB), Lukman Edy, junior figure Vicky Satari and Abdul Kadir Karding. Golkar figure Alex Noerdin, presidential chief staff Teten Masduki, public works minister Basuki Hadimuljono, transportation minister Budi Karya Sumadi, national campaign team spokesman Arya Sinulingga and local community figure Ipung Wahid.
Syahrial Oesman said there were 2,900 legislative candidates attending the event excluding volunteers.
"I will soon establish campaign teams down to sub-district levels immediately," he said.
On the occasion a video recording of President Jokowi`s achievements in the past four years was shown.
In his speech President Jokowi said that economic, social, political and cultural landscapes have now changed.
"Following the presence of social media not only openness but poltical landscapes have changed at global as well as national and local levels," he said.
In view of that he called on his supporters to be aware of them and their possible impact at national and local levels.
"In the United States, all survey results showed that Hillary Clinton would win against Donald Trump but the fact is it was Donald Trump who won," he referring to the last election in that country.
There are global political and economic landscapes that need to be watched with regard to their potential to affect national as well as local political landscapes, he said.
"The changes at national as well as local levels must be watched. We can no longer just set up big banners as this will no longer be effective. Now even a small rumor may spread within less than a second to shake public stance," he said.
In view of that he called on his supporters to remain optimistic and continue to work hard to convince voters door to door by presenting the achievements that have been made so far.
He also called on his supporters to popularize the one thumb-up sign symbolizing Jokowi-Ma`ruf Amin pair`s election number in the region as based on latest survey potential voters for him are still around 37 percent. He hopef the number would reach 50 percent by the end of the year.
He said one of the factors that caused the small number of his voters in the region was prices of crude palm oil and rubber that have fallen recently due to inevitable world market pressure.
Jokowi with chief cleric Ma`ruf Amin will compete against retired army general Prabowo Subianto with young businessman Sandiaga Uno as his running mate in the race scheduled together with parliamentary elections on April 17, 2019.
Reporting by Hanni Sofia
Editing by Yosep Haryadi
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
