Febriamy Hutapea – After taking a long, hard look at its back-to-back defeats in the recent polls, Golkar Party leaders have indicated that the party would accept its failures and would probably no longer challenge the result of the July 8 presidential election.

Golkar held its national consultation meeting at its headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta, on Monday afternoon to discuss its poor performance and collect information over the alleged violations that occurred during the presidential election.

Although an official decision had yet to be made as to whether the party would challenge the result of the election, several senior Golkar executives said the party would accept its failures during the elections.

"From my point of view, we accept it [the election result] but with reservations so that the violations will not happen again. The problems during the election occurred sporadically and they will not add a significant number to our votes," said Muladi, a senior Golkar member.

The party so far received 153 violation reports that occurred in the regions, but he said the party would take them up through the proper legal channels.

"There would be no unconstitutional moves. Everything should run with the right process through the National Supervisory Election Board or Constitutional Court," Muladi said.

Besides voters list fraud, Muladi said there were issues about money politics, last minute political attacks and pressures on district leaders that led to the party's defeat.

All six major presidential election quick counts show the incumbent vice president and his running mate Wiranto, from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), trailing well behind the other candidates with about 1 percent of the vote. The defeat follows an equally dismal performance in the legislative elections, where the party only garnered 14.4 percent of the vote, far behind the top-placed Democratic Party with almost 22 percent.

Golkar deputy chairman Agung Laksono said that the party encountered no big problems during the July 8 election. "They [party branch chairmen] said they will be responsible. So, there's no big problem," he said.

However, Agung acknowledged that Golkar's political machine did not run properly, one of the reasons for the party's poor performance. "It happened because there is the lack of logistics," he said.

Agung said that he also heard about pressures on the regional leaders that influenced the party's performance. "There are regions [leaders] who admit it, but it's not really clear," he said, declining to elaborate further.