Arientha Primanita – While the prospects for a fledgling party seeking to nominate Sri Mulyani Indrawati as its presidential candidate in 2014 look bleak, the impact of the move could nonetheless be significant, an analyst said on Friday.

Yunarto Widjaja, from the consultancy Charta Politika, said the Independent People's Union (SRI) needed to meet stringent requirements for parties contesting the 2014 polls before it could even think about putting forward the former finance minister.

Electoral laws require each party to have 30 representatives and an office in each of the country's 33 provinces and satisfy the verification process two and a half years before the elections, which the SRI has previously called "nonsensical and difficult to meet."

Yunarto said that even if it did meet the requirements, it would then have to persuade Sri Mulyani, now a managing director at the World Bank, to run on its ticket.

"The group was probably initially formed to test the water for Sri Mulyani's political ambitions, and later to campaign on her behalf," Yunarto told the Jakarta Globe. "But if she's willing to run and is promoted, other parties could be interested in having her on their ticket in 2014."

Even if she ran with the SRI, Yunarto went on, the party would still face the daunting prospect of trying to win over the rural vote, which makes up 60 percent of voters and with whom the former finance minister was not nearly as popular as with urban voters.

However, he said the SRI still had another three years to develop its strategy. "And if the party goes on to contest the 2014 elections and Sri Mulyani's name is promoted, it's possible that she could become a real threat to other political figures," he added.

Yunarto said the waning public credibility of the current crop of politicians opened the door for newcomers, making the 2014 presidential election a wide open race. "That's why alternative figures like Sri Mulyani and Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud M.D. are being promoted," he said. "They're the antithesis of traditional politicians."

Damianus Taufan, the SRI chairman, said his party's goal was to be allowed to contest the 2014 general elections and the subsequent presidential election with Sri Mulyani as its presidential candidate. However, he acknowledged that she had not commented on that possibility.

"Sri Mulyani is our inspiration because she has proven her integrity and anticorruption credentials," he told the Globe.

Among the SRI's supporters are veteran journalists Fikri Jufri and Goenawan Mohamad, and several former and active politicians.