Jakarta – Muslim leader Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid Thursday emerged as a strong contender to be Indonesia's next president in a race with opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri and incumbent B.J. Habibie.
With only two weeks to go until the election the National Awakening Party (PKB), which finished third in the June 7 parliamentary elections, said it would "most likely" withdraw support for Megawati. It would instead back Wahid in the October 20 presidential election by the 700-member People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
The PKB has so far been an ally of Megawati, the daughter of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno and leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP), winner of the June 7 polls.
"We will immediately hold a meeting. And most likely we will support Gus Dur," Alwi Shihab, deputy chairman of PKB, was quoted by the Kompas daily as saying. "We have to be thankful that our leader is nominated as president. PKB can't but support the nomination," Shihab added.
Wahid was formally nominated as a presidential candidate of the Reform faction of the new national assembly on Wednesday.
The Reform faction pairs the People's Mandate Party (PAN) of reformist politician Amien Rais, now speaker of the national assembly, and the Muslim Justice Party.
Although Wahid's name had already been floated by an alliance of seven Muslim parties for president, his candidacy only became official Wednesday.
Wahid heads the country's largest Islamic organization, the 30-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which created the PKB after the fall of former president Suharto last year.
The stock market reacted cautiously to Wahid's nomination, with the index closingd 0.6 lower as investors adopted a wait-and-see attitude, dealers said.
"I think the market is still confused about the signals about who is going to become the next president," a dealer with Lippo Securities said.
Khofifah Indar Parawansa of the PKB had earlier said that once Wahid had been nominated by a faction in the parliament, the party would throw its support behind him.
"Gus Dur is a prominent figure in our party, but we cannot support him if none of the factions has nominated him," she was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying. She said PKB's formal support must be decided in an internal meeting between party executives.
But Shihab said the party wanted to see how serious the reform faction was in nominating Wahid. "Is it only rhetoric and words, or are they serious in garnering bigger support?" he said.
Analysts say Megawati's chances of winning the presidency have weakened following her party defeats in the elections of chairman of the MPR and speaker of the lower house (DPR).
But Dimyati Hartono, one of Megawati deputies, said on Wednesday he was optimistic Megawati would become president. "Up until now, the PDIP is still optimistic," Hartono said.
"They [speakers' positions] are not defeats for PDIP because the MPR and the DPR are both not the targets [of PDIP,]" Hartono said, adding that the main objective of the party was to ensure Megawati became president.
PDIP's candidate for the MPR chairmanship, Matori Abdul Jalil, lost by a slight margin of 26 votes against Muslim reform leader Amien Rais who received the backing of the ruling Golkar and an alliance of several Muslim parties.
Many fear a violent backlash by Megawati's supporters, who are mostly urban and rural poor, if she is not elected president despite her party's victory in the elections.
PDIP executives, and Megawati herself, have reasoned that the party that won the most votes in the parliamentary elections holds the right to lead the country.