Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Despite an aggressive push by the Democratic Party to forge a coalition with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the latter is still holding out hope that its chairwoman, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, will be able to stand in the July 8 presidential election.

Speaking on Tuesday night at Megawati's residence in Central Jakarta, PDI-P secretary general Pramono Anung said Megawati had just met with a "national figure" with the aim of deciding whom the party would endorse for president and vice president. He declined to name the figure.

A team was also formed and tasked with settling technical matters agreed to during the meeting, Pramono said.

With Golkar and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) effectively out of reach for a coalition with the PDI-P, speculation among some party supporters was that the "national figure" in question may have been Prabowo Subianto of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra). Forming a coalition with Gerindra would mean that the PDI-P could meet the vote threshold required to name candidates for the top two posts.

But efforts to forge an alliance have stalled in the face of Gerindra's insistence on Prabowo running for the presidency, not the vice presidency as the PDI-P would prefer.

Megawati also met on Tuesday with her former coordinating minister for economic affairs, Rizal Ramli, but he denied that she had asked him to run for vice president.

Referencing his party's recent meetings with the Democrats, Pramono stressed that communication between the two should not be linked to rumors that Yudhoyono had chosen Bank Indonesia Governor Boediono – who once served as a minister under Megawati – as his vice presidential candidate. "Boediono was 1,000 percent chosen by SBY himself," Pramono said.

Talks between the two parties, which have traditionally traded political barbs, have drawn sharp criticisms from PDI-P supporters.

The National Revolutionary Committee for Mega said the PDI-P could form a coalition with any party except the Democrats. "Becoming a supporter of PD now would render meaningless the PDI-P's last five years in the opposition," committee spokesman Budi Mulyawan said.

But political analyst Bara Hasibuan said at a discussion in Jakarta that the two parties actually shared much of the same platform and ideology. He said Indonesia faced three challenges: economic development, strengthening democracy and becoming a major international player. "This really requires cooperation between parties that share a platform. So it is quite normal that the Democrats would become closer with PDI-P."

At the same event, Yacobus E. Kurniawan, from the Archipelago Network NGO, criticized recent threats by some Islamic-based parties that said they would pull out of a coalition with the Democratic Party if it joined with the PDI-P.