Markus Junianto Sihaloho – More National Mandate Party members on Thursday denounced their party's backing of Democratic Party candidate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and pledged their support for former President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

About 70 members of the party, known as PAN, from 30 different areas of Java and Sumatra visited the offices of the campaign team behind Megawati and running mate Prabowo Subianto in Menteng, Central Jakarta, where they were welcomed by campaign team secretary Hasto Kristianto.

A spokesman for the PAN members, Samlawi, said they believed PAN's central leaders board had made the wrong decision in supporting Yudhoyono and running mate Boediono because this flew in the face of the aspirations of most PAN members.

There was no consultation with members about the decision, he said. "It is our private choice to support Megawati and Prabowo Subianto, who we think will bring significant and good changes to the current poor situation in Indonesian economic and political life," Samlawi said.

Megawati-Prabowo campaign team member M Yasin said the PAN members had expressed strong support for Megawati and Prabowo's economic policies. "They said that the pro-poor policies of Megawati-Prabowo were suited to the citizens' needs," Yasin said. "That's the main reason for them joining us."

Yasin denied that his campaign team had actively tried to solicit campaign support from members of the 22 parties in coalition with Yudhoyono's Democrats. "[The PAN's members] came to meet with us of their own accord, we never invited them to come," Yasin said.

Hatta Radjasa, a member of the PAN advisory board who also chairs the Yudhoyono-Boediono campaign, said on Wednesday that Yudhoyono and Boediono were still receiving solid support from the coalition parties.

"The central boards of all coalition parties have said that members who gave support to rival candidates would be sanctioned, including in PAN," Hatta said.