Vaudine England, Jakarta – Weeks of calls for President Abdurrahman Wahid to resign have resulted in affirmation of support from his Vice-President and signs that his staunchest critic, Amien Rais, is on a losing streak.

Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's political party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), announced this week it opposed calls for Mr Wahid to resign, and said it would use its muscle in parliament to sustain the President's constitutional right to rule. At the same time, Golkar chairman and Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR), Akbar Tandjung, has backed Ms Megawati's suggestion that annual sessions of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which Mr Rais is Speaker of, should be abolished.

Later yesterday, Mr Wahid issued a message through an aide calling for calm. "In the national political situation recently, it seems like there is a political conflict between parliament and the executive, especially with President Abdurrahman Wahid," the message said. "Actually it is not like that."

"But the statements ... even if they are strong and out of proportion because they feel the work of the Government ... [do] not result in something positive for this nation, are not seen as an attack. But it is a criticism, a warning for the Government to get on the right path."

Mr Rais has, meanwhile, publicly apologised for nominating Mr Wahid as President, but sidled away from calls that he should also resign for the "mistake".

Some politicians say his ineffectual calls for Mr Wahid's resignation only reveal the lack of numbers on Mr Rais' side. "Ultimately, the biggest vote in the MPR has been for the status quo," one political analyst said.

"It is not fair to blame all of the problems on the Government," said Pramono Anung, the secretary-general of PDI-P. "PDI Perjuangan supports [Wahid] in his position as the legitimate President until 2004," he said.

Investigations in the DPR of two financial scandals alleged to involve Mr Wahid are aimed at leading to a special MPR session which could impeach the President. But court hearings show it will be hard to pin blame on Mr Wahid while key witness testimony continues to exonerate him.

And a special session could only be called if PDI-P combined with the Golkar faction. Ms Megawati's support for Mr Wahid rules that out. PDI-P and Golkar may well co-operate, but so far they have done so in opposition to moves to unseat Mr Wahid, and in support of a weakening of Mr Rais.

One PDI-P faction member, Emir Muis, said Mr Rais should resign or be jailed. "He is the party most responsible for the nation's doom and not the President," he said.

As for the annual MPR sessions, which this August cost 25 billion rupiah to stage, the main parties are agreed that these should go, depriving Mr Rais of both face and a sounding board. "In my capacity as [Golkar] party chairman, I agree that we should not hold an annual session," said Mr Tandjung.

Ms Megawati said: "There are too many political manoeuvres in the session which result in the Government neglecting to focus on its programmes and instead wasting time and energy in countering these manoeuvres."

Mr Rais has also had to deny accusations that he wants to take over as president. "I have never had the ambition to become a president until 2004," Mr Rais said. "It is important to honour the consensus so that political elites don't fight with each other until 2004." After that, he said, "if there are no other figures and if PAN [his National Mandate Party] gets a good performance in the next general election, I might pursue the [presidential] candidacy".