<![CDATA[This article examines the strategy used to form the political party coalition supporting Anton-Poti in the 2024 Rokan Hulu Regency local election. The study focuses on how political parties selected coalition partners, aggregated political resources, managed internal conflict, reduced political bargaining costs, and consolidated electoral strength. A descriptive qualitative case-study approach was employed. The analysis draws on research documents, interview materials contained in the thesis, official electoral documents, news reports, and scholarly literature on political coalitions and local elections. William H. Riker’s Minimum Winning Coalition perspective is used through five analytical indicators: coalition efficiency, rationality in selecting supporting parties, avoidance of internal conflict, reduction of political compromise burdens, and combined electoral strength. The findings indicate that the Anton-Poti ticket was supported by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Gerindra, Hanura, the Crescent Star Party (PBB), and Partai Ummat under the coalition name “Bersama Membangun Negeri”. The coalition cannot be regarded as a mathematically minimal winning coalition because its five-party configuration was broader than the narrowest possible winning combination. Nevertheless, functionally, it reflected efficiency by combining parties with different and complementary political resources. Party selection was associated with candidate appeal, organizational networks, legislative strength, political experience, and perceived electoral opportunities. Elite bargaining, role division, and political communication were important mechanisms for reducing internal conflict and compromise costs. The final electoral result gave Anton-Poti 102,846 valid votes, equivalent to 38.55%, and they were subsequently established as the elected pair. The study therefore argues that coalition formation in Indonesian local elections should be interpreted contextually: the “minimum” principle may operate as functional efficiency rather than simply minimizing the number of coalition members. Keywords: political coalition, Minimum Winning Coalition, local election, Rokan Hulu, political parties, Anton-Poti]]>
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