Vaudine England, Jakarta – The nomination of President Bacharuddin Habibie as the sole presidential candidate of the Golkar party is a sign not of the President's personal popularity but of the continuing dominance of money politics, party insiders say.

"Senior board members [of Golkar] were given 200 million rupiah each, and members of all the party departments received 100 million rupiah each," one party member said.

This money was reportedly handed out just over a week ago at a meeting in which Golkar's long-held decision not to choose a presidential candidate before the forthcoming parliamentary election was overturned.

Less-conventional members of Golkar, such as one of the vice-chairmen, Marzuki Darusman, said that choosing Mr Habibie before the June poll was a mistake as it would be better for the party to keep its options open.

"The public seems to link Golkar's chances to a candidate who is not Habibie, so that if we don't nominate Habibie, we'll do better," he said before the nomination.

These arguments were overturned, party sources said, due to the wide distribution of funds to party delegates. Sixty-nine out of 104 delegates thus voted last week to choose a sole candidate.

At the same time, key party leaders have been collecting funds from state-owned enterprises. The instruction was to collect five per cent of each firm's worth for the Golkar coffers, but many firms have managed to contribute just one billion rupiah each.

Further funds are reported to have been collected from major ethnic Chinese conglomerates, in just the same ways as of old.

While these moves were under way, three of Golkar's presidential candidates quit the race: party chairman Akbar Tandjung, Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy; Finance and Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita; and armed forces chief of staff General Wiranto.

This left Habibie and the reigning royal of central Java, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, in the running.