Anita Rachman – The official announcement that Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie will run as the presidential candidate for Indonesia's grand old party will be made next year, the man in question revealed on Monday.
Aburizal said his prospects in the 2014 election were being discussed by leaders of Golkar's 33 provincial offices and his nomination would be made official after a general meeting of the provincial leaders next year.
"Nevertheless, we will wait for the electability figures to increase before we make the announcement," he said. "For the party, that means at least 25 percent, and for the presidential candidate, which is myself, that means 20 percent."
A recent poll by the Soegeng Soerjadi Syndicate showed that 31 percent of respondents would vote for Golkar in the legislative elections. However, Aburizal said most other surveys put the party's popularity at 18 percent. "We've got to raise this figure to 25 percent," he said.
He added that in terms of his own popularity as a presidential candidate, some polls had him at less than 10 percent. "But the average is probably around 14 percent, so we've got to jack that up to 20 percent first," he said.
In the 2009 legislative elections, no party won a full quarter of the vote. Golkar received just 14.45 percent, behind the ruling Democratic Party, which won 20.85 percent.
In the presidential election a few months later, the Golkar candidate and chairman at the time, Jusuf Kalla, managed to get just 12.41 percent of votes, while President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won convincingly with 60.8 percent.
As part of efforts to boost the electability of both the party and its candidate come 2014, Golkar revealed it would work hard throughout 2012 on a series of programs designed to bring it closer to the people, particularly in rural areas.
Idrus Marham, the Golkar secretary general, said the programs were not aimed exclusively at endearing the party to voters but rather were meant to instill trust and appreciation in the people toward Golkar's efforts in their interests.
"We will be carrying out real programs that are in the interests of the people," he said. They include programs in the fields of agriculture, fisheries and labor, which would "reflect" the party's political platform, he said.
Idrus also said he was confident that an increase in the party's popularity would also translate into a boost for Aburizal's bid for the presidency. "When Golkar's electability increases, so does Aburizal's," Idrus said.