Febriamy Hutapea – In the latest sign of a split within the Golkar Party ahead of the July presidential poll, news emerged on Tuesday of a secret meeting of dozens of senior national and district-level party officials.

The news prompted speculation that they were planning to call an emergency party congress to unseat chairman and outgoing Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is Golkar's presidential candidate.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, an influential Golkar leader, hosted the meeting on Monday night at his residence. It was attended by House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono, Golkar central board members Firman Subagyo and Priyo Budi Santoso, and other leaders.

Agung, Firman and Priyo were known to have favored a coalition with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party for the July election. Instead, Kalla parted ways with Yudhoyono and secured Golkar's presidential nomination.

Yuddy Chrisnandi, a member of Kalla's campaign team, said that Monday's meeting was aimed at speeding up the holding of an extraordinary party congress, which is not scheduled to be held until the end of the year. Kalla's chairmanship could be challenged at the congress.

Yuddy said he regretted that the meeting even occurred given that Golkar had formally endorsed the Kalla-Wiranto ticket.

"I urge all Golkar leaders, members and cadres to restrain themselves," he said at the House. "If they don't want to support or oppose the [Kalla-Wiranto] candidacy, they should at least not make moves that could disturb the strength of the pairing."

Opinion polls earlier this year showed Kalla lagging far behind the other two presidential candidates, Yudhoyono and former President Megawati Sukarnoputri. It is not clear how Kalla's campaign might be affected if he were ousted as Golkar's leader.

Golkar officials who attended the meeting denied they were seeking to challenge Kalla. Agung characterized it as a gathering aimed at discussing and evaluating the Kalla-Wiranto ticket.

"There is no talk about speeding up the extraordinary national meeting to unseat Kalla," he told reporters on Tuesday. "We're just talking about how to boost the party's performance next time. We hope Golkar can rise again."

Former Golkar chairman Akbar Tanjung said on Tuesday that it was suggested during the meeting that the party hold its extraordinary congress soon to discuss consolidating its position after Golkar's poor showing in April's legislative polls. He said that they did not discuss ousting Kalla.

Ikrar Nusa Bakti of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said the rift in Golkar was due to a rivalry between supporters of Kalla and Akbar. "There's still a movement to harm the legitimacy of Kalla to run for president within Golkar itself," he said.