Amir Tejo & Anita Rachman, Surabaya – Yenny Wahid was elected as the new chairwoman of one of the divided National Awakening Party's two factions on Monday.
The new chairwoman, whose full name is Zannuba Ariffah Chafsoh Rahman Wahid, was elected by acclaim in a congress held by the party faction aligned with her late father, PKB founder and former President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.
"Of the 33 regional chapters present, two abstained from voting while the rest chose Yenny, so we can say that she won by acclaim," said Imron Rosyadi, head of the congress.
Ahmad Syahid was elected as head of the faction's advisory board at the congress.
Yenny held out an olive branch to the other PKB faction, headed by Muhaimin, issuing an invitation to the congress that was summarily rejected. Officials from Muhaimin's faction said the congress was not held by the state-recognized party and therefore was not legitimate.
The factional split occurred in 2004, when Gus Dur dismissed Muhaimin as the PKB's secretary general. Muhaimin contested his dismissal in court and won. He then held a rival congress that elected him as chairman, and his position was later recognized by the government.
"We have taken the initiative, now the ball is in their court," Yenny said. "If they want to make peace, they are welcome."
She would not speculate on the chances of the party overcoming its differences before the 2014 elections, or whether her faction would make the split official and form a new party.
"What is important now is to internally consolidate the party," she said. "Whether we will form a new party or not is something to decide later."
Adhie Massardi, a PKB executive from Yenny's faction, said he was hopeful the split could be resolved before the elections.
"Establishing a new party and working toward reconciliation would require the same amount of energy," he said. "There is still a long time before the elections, so the possibility of a peaceful settlement remains."
Marwan Jafar, chairman of the PKB faction in the House of Representatives and head of the executive council of Muhaimin's faction, said Yenny had not been considered a PKB member since 2009, when she campaigned for another political party, the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), in the general elections.
He said the PKB under Muhaimin had extended several invitations to Yenny, including to the national congress, but she had always refused.
Also during the congress, members voted for the legislative and presidential election thresholds to be set at 5 percent.
Yenny said the faction supported raising the legislative threshold, currently at 2.5 percent, to streamline the legislature. The legislative threshold is the number of votes a party must receive in general elections to take a seat in the House.
Putting the presidential election threshold at 5 percent, she added, would allow all parties that made it into the House to nominate their own candidates for the presidential election.
"The more presidential candidates there are, the better, so that the people can have more choice," she said.