Febriamy Hutapea – With leaders of other major parties talking of grand coalitions, a confident President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has turned in recent days to some of the smaller parties in his current coalition in an effort that may hold clues about the president's strategy ahead of July's presidential election.

Over the last four days, the president reached out to top officials of three Islam-based parties that support the current government led by Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who heads the Golkar Party.

Late on Tuesday, Yudhoyono met with Hilmi Aminuddin, a senior party official of the conservative Islamic Prosperous Justice Party, or PKS. He followed that up by meeting on Wednesday with Sutrisno Bachir, chairman of the National Mandate Party, or PAN, and on Thursday morning with Muhaimin Iskandar chairman of the internal strife-ridden National Awakening Party, or PKB.

In contrast to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, and Kalla's Golkar party, PKS, PAN and PKB each have traditionally drawn their supporters from among the ranks of Muslim organizations, though ones varying ideological and doctrinal flavors.

A top Democratic Party leader, Anas Urbaningrum, said the meetings were merely aimed at maintaining good relations between current coalition partners. "This is normal as we're partners," Anas said of the meeting. "We agreed to be together until this government's term is over."

The meetings, however, come after high-profile talks in recent weeks between Kalla and former President Megawati Sukarnoputri of the PDI-P, and as pollsters and pundits predict with increasing confidence a strong showing for Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.

If the party can approach or surpass 25 percent of the popular vote or 20 percent of the House seats in the April 9 national legislative elections, it would be in a strong position either to nominate Yudhoyono as a presidential candidate without the need to form a coalition, or to pick up the support of one or two smaller parties to broaden its base.

Hitching themselves to the Yudhoyono wagon would likely be an enticing proposition for the three parties, as another Yudhoyono victory would give them a good chance of retaining key cabinet positions.

PKB central board chairman, Helmi Faishal Zaini, was not particularly forthcoming about the details of Thursday's Yudhoyono-Muhaimin meeting, saying only that the top representatives of the two parties "discussed our commitment to making the election a success, as it is important for our future democracy."

PAN's Sutrisno was equally vague about the details of their meeting, but did emphasize his party's openness to potentially supporting the incumbent's re-election bid.

Representatives of the conservative Islamic PKS were decidedly more open about voicing their readiness to support the president once again. PKS chairman Tifatul Sembiring said his party was far more likely to join once again with Yudhoyono's party.

An internal survey among PKS cadres, he said, showed that many in the party preferred to maintain the partnership with the Democratic Party, rather than ditching the incumbent and throwing their weight behind either one of the two other leading contenders, PDI-P or Golkar.

PKS secretary general, Anis Matta, said he planned to follow-up the high level talks with working-level meetings next week.

"We will review the political contract between PKS and Yudhoyono," Anis said, but he suggested that the at least some in their party had already made their feelings known about the president. "PKS members believe that Yudhoyono's progress in implementing the reform agenda is running well," he said.