Ezra Sihite – Presidential hopeful Aburizal Bakrie's popularity is growing, Golkar Party officials said on Monday, citing the results of a recent party-backed survey measuring the popularity of presidential candidates.

"We're not being confident without basis. It was an open survey. The result is pretty tight; but Pak Ical [Aburizal] is improving. He last finished at 16 percent, while Prabowo at 17 percent," Golkar secretary-general Idrus Marham said on Monday in Jakarta.

Business typcoon Aburizal, Prabowo, a retired Army general and son-in-law of Soeharto, and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) are among the potential candidates for Indonesia's 2014 presidential election.

The Golkar Party said they were currently testing Aburizal's popularity in Central Java. "We're now going down streets of Central Java villages every week; our central board of executives are also taking part with this [campaign], and we'll conduct other surveys," Idrus said.

The party has yet to announce Aburizal's running mate. "We're still focusing on the presidential candidate," Idrus said. (BeritaSatu/JG)