Ezra Sihite & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie will meet the party's senior politicians later this week as he continues to face opposition to a potential presidential bid.

Golkar deputy chairman Fadel Muhammad said in Jakarta on Sunday that Aburizal had invited former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Akbar Tanjung, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, Ginanjar Kartasasmita, the former coordinating minister for the economy, and Yogyakarta's governor, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, to discuss his candidacy.

"Pak Aburizal will meet with them at an informal meeting on April 27," he said.

Golkar's central board has said that it will nominate Aburizal as the party's presidential candidate in the 2014 election. Because the candidacy needs approval from all branches across the country, the board also announced it would bring the party's national leadership meeting forward to July from October.

Members of the central board have said that the earlier holding of the meeting was required to allow Aburizal to move quickly in order to better prepare for the election.

The move, however, was met with opposition from several influential Golkar politicians, including Akbar, a former party chairman, and Andi Mattalatta, a former justice and human rights minister.

They said the early nomination of Aburizal had ignored the rights of other members to nominate presidential candidates, threatening Golkar's unity ahead of the election. Akbar, the chief of the party's central leadership board, cited Kalla as a possible alternative after he came out ahead of Aburizal in recent surveys.

On Saturday, Akbar reiterated his opposition, saying the national leadership meeting must first set procedures to select candidates and not directly appoint a particular candidate. He said if the meeting directly appointed a presidential candidate, then the public would see the party as undemocratic.

"We have to agree on a mechanism to select our presidential candidate. We can't just appoint someone to represent the party as our candidate for president," Akbar said.

Fadel, a former minister of fisheries and maritime affairs, said he and Aburizal respected the opinion of the party's senior politicians. "We hope that the discussion between the chairman and the senior m embers can clear thing up," he said.

Golkar officials have previously acknowledged divisions in the party over Aburizal's candidacy. Analysts have noted the significance of the opposition by an influential figure like Akbar, whom many regard as responsible for Aburizal winning the party chairmanship in 2009.

Golkar has a history of division among its top figures. In 2004, Kalla challenged Golkar's official presidential candidate, Wiranto, a retired Army general and former defense minister, by running with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, dividing the party's supporters and contributing to Wiranto's loss in the presidential race.

Some Golkar officials have said that business tycoon Aburizal does not want a repeat of those divisions to cost him the country's top position.