Amir Tejo, Surabaya – The importance of electing a new leader for Ansor, the youth wing of the Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Islamic organization, looks set to be overshadowed by issues other than the election itself.

Present during Thursday's opening of the Ansor congress in Surabaya, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono referred to recent statements by nine religious leaders accusing the government of lying to the people.

Yudhoyono said that whatever the government had failed to achieve, it would not try to hide it from the public.

A day later, a smear campaign was apparently at work ahead of the Ansor election. A text message circulating at the Ansor congress spoke of "outsider intervention."

"What we know is that a businessman with the initials ARB has disbursed Rp 100 billion [$11 million] to get NW elected as Ansor chairman so that Ansor can be drawn into the political arena," said the message, which was said to be from the campaign team of Chatibul Umam W.

Chatibul, a Democratic Party lawmaker, is one of the candidates for the chairmanship. The message is believed to refer to another candidate, Nusron Wahid, a lawmaker with the Golkar Party, chaired by businessman Aburizal Bakrie.

Nusron joked about the allegation, saying he would be happy to have such a large sum of money, adding that he "would donate it to orphans and Islamic boarding schools."

Giri Sancoko, who heads Chatibul's campaign team, denied the text message originated from his camp.

Khoirul Rijal, chairman of another youth group, the Nahdlatul Ulama Savior Movement (GPNU), said there was concern that money politics would play a part because most election candidates were affiliated with parties.

Hasyim Muzadi, a former NU chairman and now an adviser, said: "I hope the Ansor congress is able to reject money politics, even though it is difficult because Indonesia has now turned into an industry." Besides Nusron and Chatibul, the other candidates include Malik Haramain from the National Awakening Party (PKB), Shaiful Tamlica from the United Development Party (PPP) and Democrat Marwan Jakfar.