Under regulations, candidates are required to secure the support of a political party or a coalition thereof comprising at least 20 percent of the seats in the regional house. Alternatively, independent candidates may run provided they are capable of securing support from 8.5 percent of the total voter population (333,119 voters) in form of photocopied ID cards subject to verification by the local committee although no candidates expressing interest managed to do this. Syamsuar, having won elections in
Siak Regency twice, was approved by
PAN to run in the gubernatorial election despite himself being a member of
Golkar. After securing the support of
Nasdem and
PKS, he was eligible to run with 13 seats in the provincial council. His running mate Edi Nasution is a
brigadier general in the
Indonesian Army, who was stationed at
Pekanbaru. Muhammad Lukman Edy had previously ran twice for governor - in 2008 and 2013 - and lost in both occasions. In addition to being member of
DPR and holding a deputy chair post at
MPR, he was the chairman of PKB's Riau office, and secured the support of his party to run. His running mate Hardianto is a member of Riau's provincial council, and the pair secured just enough seats in it to run (7 from PKB, 6 from Gerindra). Also with 13 seats in the council,
Pekanbaru mayor
Firdaus ran for governorship. The supporting parties are his own (
Demokrat, with 9 seats) and
PPP (4 seats). His running mate, Rusli Effendi, is a PPP member who had served 10 years in the provincial council. Incumbent Arsyadjuliandi Rachman (who was made governor following the arrest of his predecessor by the
Corruption Eradication Commission in 2014) managed to secure the support of
Golkar,
PDI-P and
Hanura. His running mate Suyatno was the regent of
Rokan Hilir. ==Polling==