Febriamy Hutapea – Golkar Party chairman Vice President Jusuf Kalla should prepare himself to step down as party chairman if he fails to win the presidency in the July 8 election, one of his most senior supporters said on Monday.

Golkar senior board member Muladi said Kalla should be gentlemanly enough to acknowledge defeat by resigning from the chairmanship.

"I'm not expecting Kalla to lose but, if he does, it would be better if it is he who initiates the idea to bring forward the date of the party's national meeting and resign," he said, referring to the Golkar practice of holding a special five-yearly review in the December of each presidential-election year.

The idea of an earlier meeting already has been canvassed. Dozens of senior national and district-level party officials met last week at the home of Golkar advisory board member Aburizal Bakrie and considered convening an extraordinary meeting earlier than planned. Bakrie is also the coordinating minister for people's welfare. The meeting was attended by House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono, Golkar central board members Firman Subagyo and Priyo Budi Santoso among other leaders.

Agung, Firman and Priyo are known to have favored the idea that Golkar should have formed 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.

Former Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung, who also attended the meeting, said it was suggested at the meeting that the party should hold an extraordinary congress to evaluate Golkar's poor showing at the April 9 legislative elections. However, the idea of ousting Kalla from the party chair had not been discussed.

Although Golkar officials who attended the meeting denied they were seeking to challenge Kalla, Muladi admitted there had been calls from elsewhere in the party to hold such a meeting.

However, he suggested that party leaders should at present focus on the presidential election and avoid any further talk of attempts to sack Kalla. "If Kalla fails to win [on July 8], we may speed up the national meeting to choose a new party chairman, but the idea should come from Kalla himself," Muladi said.

He said it would protect Kalla's pride if the idea to speed up the national meeting came from Kalla himself, and not from demands by party members who might later urge the holding of an extraordinary national meeting aimed at unseating Kalla.

According to Muladi, Kalla at one stage did want to resign from the chairmanship after reflecting upon Golkar's poor performance in the April legislative election. However, he had decided to run for president for the sake of party's solidarity, Muladi said.

Golkar garnered about 14.45 percent of the national popular vote in the April polls, down from the 21.6 percent it obtained in the 2004 legislative elections.

Kalla was elected party chairman after winning more than 50 percent of the votes against his rival, Akbar, at the party's national congress in December 2004. Kalla secured the role after he was picked as Yudhoyono's running mate in the 2004 presidential election.