Camelia Pasandaran – Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa will likely be declared the presidential candidate for the National Mandate Party, a senior member of the party said on Monday.

Bima Arya, chairman of the executive board of the Muslim-based party, known as PAN, said Hatta, a soon to be in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, would likely be declared as a presidential candidate during the party's national congress on Dec. 11.

He told the Jakarta Globe that no other name had been supported by the PAN board and it was only a issue of when Hatta would be officially named as the party's presidential candidate.

Bima claimed that Hatta – a former minister of transportation who lost his job after a series of aviation and ferry disasters – would pose a formidable challenge.

He said that even though Hatta had not campaigned as much as other candidates, such as Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, he remained popular.

"His physical attraction is his distinctive silver hair," Bima said. "He is known as Mr. Silver Gray, or Rambut Bodas [white hair] in West Java, or Si Uban [White Hair] in Jakarta. He has those pet names that shows how people adore him."

News portal tempointeraktif.com has reported that Hassa established a campaign team last year and that a team has begun gathering campaign contributions. Bima, however, said it was the party, not Hatta, that had established the campaign team.