While Vice President Jusuf Kalla spent the weekend campaigning, senior officials from his Golkar Party held a second round of meetings to discuss replacing him as party chairman, possibly with cabinet minister Aburizal Bakrie.

House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono, the party's deputy chairman, confirmed on Sunday that he hosted a meeting at his home on Saturday afternoon, which was attended by Bakrie, a member of Golkar's supervisory council and the coordinating minister for people's welfare, and former Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung.

Those officials also held a similar meeting last month, prompting speculation they were planning to call a special party meeting to unseat Kalla as chairman before the July 8 presidential election, rather than wait for a scheduled congress later this year. "It was only an informal, common meeting," Agung said.

But Agung said that during Saturday's meeting, several Golkar officials from the influential district offices threw their weight behind Bakrie to run for party chairman, and asked that the congress be moved forward to just after the presidential election.

Kalla has been under fire since Golkar's poor showing in the April 9 legislative elections, and has been warned that he should be ready to resign if he loses in the presidential poll.

Agung, Bakrie and Akbar are known to have wanted to remain in a coalition with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but Kalla pulled out and secured Golkar's presidential nomination.

Yuddy Chrisnandi, a spokesman for Kalla's campaign team, said Agung and Bakrie had informed Kalla about the latest meeting. "Based on Agung and Ical's [Aburizal] explanation, there was no discussion about the acceleration of the party's national meeting or an extraordinary national meeting," he said.

But a Golkar official, who declined to be named, said Bakrie, Agung and other officials planned to hold the congress in July or August if Kalla lost in the first round of the presidential poll. "Even if there's a second round, the meeting would be held shortly after... in September," the source said. "Aburizal is projected to replace Kalla and lead Golkar to coalesce with the Democratic Party." (JG, Antara)