While it’s been overshadowed by the drama of the presidential race, Indonesians will be going to the polls on April 17 to not only vote for the nation’s leader but also for hundreds of positions in regional and local governments. One candidate for the Regional Representative Council (DPRD) of Sleman Regency in the Yogyakarta Special Administrative Region recently gained viral fame due to the merry associations with her name.
The candidate, Fransisca Santa Clause, is running as a DPRD candidate for Sleman’s fifth electoral district under the banner of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), an Islam-based political party that is supporting presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto.
The candidate’s unusual name was picked up on by the national media after a tweet posted on Monday by user @awshumlyfe — featuring a political poster for Fransiska Santa Clause along with the caption “Nemu di explore IG, nama caleg dan asal partai ga sinkron syekali (Found on Instagram, the name of the candidate and the party are really not in sync)” — went viral.
Nemu di explore IG, nama caleg dan asal partai ga sinkron syekali pic.twitter.com/bZb1qhkpAz
— yuhuu (@awshumlyfe) February 26, 2019
“To all brothers and sisters, neighbors, friends & colleagues, I ask for your prayers, blessing and support. For the April 17, 2019 election vote for me, number 3 from the PKS to represent the Sleman DPRD.” reads the top of a poster, which was originally posted to PKS’ official Instagram account on Monday.
The candidate’s name was further confirmed by Detik, who asked the Chairman of the Regional Representative Council for PKS in Sleman, Hasto Karyantoro, about it.
“Yes, that’s a real name,” Hasto replied via SMS, although the report noted that he was reluctant to comment further regarding Fransiska or the social media reaction to the name.
Fransiska is not the only candidate in April’s election to have gained notice for her unusual name. A man named H. Joni Wolker also got a fair bit of good-spirited attention last year when he registered as a candidate for the Cirebon Regency DPRD as a member of the Democratic Party.
https://www.facebook.com/jony.wolker1/posts/1802412263197725
