Muninggar Sri Saraswati & Sally Piri – Two senior members of the fractured Golkar Party have announced their willingness to run for vice president on the ticket of incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is also Golkar chairman, indicated he may contest the presidency.
Wednesday's announcements from former Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung and Gorontalo Governor Fadel Mohammed that they would be willing to run with Yudhoyono follow many months of pressure from the party to field a presidential candidate to demonstrate the party's unity and power.
Both Akbar and Fadel are no friends of Kalla, who remains firm in his stance that the party that he controls will not announce its presidential candidate – if any – until after the legislative elections on April 9.
A number of analysts believe that Kalla's future political fortunes remain firmly tied to those of Yudhoyono, while Yudhoyono in turn relies on the support of Golkar in the unruly House of Representatives.
They point to the party's plunging popularity since the 2004 elections when it reassumed it position as the largest party in the House, and the fact that Golkar's top leaders lack the star power of Yudhoyono or former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P.
Akbar called a press conference at his residence in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, on Wednesday to proclaim his willingness to run with Yudhoyono, but in the same breath admitted that he was yet to inform the president of his decision.
"If I were asked, I would accept it, although the presidential polls are still months away," he said.
The veteran politician, once convicted of corruption involving a program to supply food to Indonesian's poorest citizens but controversially acquitted on appeal, said he retained the support of a number of regional Golkar branches.
Separately, in Ternate, Fadel, the popular governor of Gorontalo, a province that many consider to be a successful model for regional autonomy, said he would not hesitate to run as Yudhoyono's vice presidential candidate, but that he had not communicated the idea to the president.
"If I were offered to become SBY's vice presidential candidate in the upcoming election, I would say yes. I feel I could carry the mandate," he was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.
"A number of regions in eastern Indonesia such as Papua, East Nusa Tenggara, Central Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, North Maluku and Gorontalo would support me should I run as a vice presidential candidate," Fadel claimed.
Fadel said Alkhairaat, the largest Islamic organization in eastern Indonesia, which is also close to Yudhoyono, had thrown its weight behind him and planned to talk to Yudhoyono about its endorsement of him as the president's running mate.
On Wednesday, however, both Akbar and Fadel said that they remained Golkar members and that they would support whoever the party endorsed as its presidential candidate in a special meeting to be held in April.