Jakarta – The Golkar Party at its central executive board meeting has declared an associate chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Solahuddin Wahid, as vice presidential candidate to accompany the party's front-runner Wiranto.

Golkar named Solahuddin as its vice presidential candidate as he would secure full support from the National Awakening Party (PKB) and influent ulemas of NU, the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, Golkar's General Chairman Akbar Tandjung said here at early hours of Monday.

"We will officially announce the pair of Wiranto and Salahuddin to the public on May 11 and register them with the General Elections Commission [KPU]," Akbar said.

Akbar said the party's central executive board made the decision after seriously studying the seriousness of PKB in giving support to the couple of Wiranto and Solahuddin.

"God willing, we will win the presidential election on July 5 with 24 million votes owned by Golkar and 12 million votes from PKB besides the supports from ulemas," Akbar said.

After the party's central executive board meeting, Akbar and Wiranto held a closed-door meeting with Solahuddin.