Jakarta – The presidential ambitions of United Development Party (PPP) chairman Suryadharma Ali encountered a major stumbling block as a number of local party branches decided to back former vice president Jusuf Kalla of the Golkar party.
The party's deputy chairman, Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin, said that a number of regional branches of the PPP had nominated Kalla as their candidate for the 2014 presidential election, although Kalla himself had not responded to the offer.
"Kalla is one of the strong candidates from outside the party. But internally, Suryadharma Ali remains the number one choice," Lukman told reporters on Monday.
The PPP executive said some of the party's members endorsed Kalla for his experience as a vice president during the first term of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in addition to his reputation as a trustworthy politician.
A number of major political parties have officially forwarded their leaders as presidential candidates. Last month, the Golkar Party announced with great fanfare that its chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, would be its candidate for the 2014 election.
The National Mandate Party (PAN) also endorsed its chairman, Hatta Rajasa, as its presidential candidate. Smaller political parties like the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People's Conscience Party have also nominated their leaders as presidential candidates.
In a recent survey conducted by the Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting Firm, 3.7 percent of respondents supported Kalla. The most popular candidate in the survey, chief patron of the Gerindra party Prabowo Subianto, was supported by 10 percent of the survey's respondents. Suryadharma failed to earn a spot in the top-10 most electable candidates.
Lukman, however, said that talk of presidential candidates should be put on the back burner as the PPP would first focus on the legislative election.
"We need to first meet the parliamentary threshold for the House of Representatives before deciding whether we can endorse our own candidate or whether we need to build a coalition with other parties," he said. PPP only garnered 6.61 percent of the vote, which translated into 37 seats in the House, in the 2009 election.
Aware of Suryadharma's limited appeal, which was recently eroded by his controversial moves as Religious Affairs Minister, the PPP has looked for other candidates for the 2014 election, including young academic Anies Baswedan and veteran politicians Aburizal and Hatta.
Responding to the PPP's decision to name Kalla as its possible presidential candidate, a member of Golkar's central executive board, Hajriyanto Tohari, said that his party would not make any efforts to block it. "We don't feel that we suffer any losses," he said, adding that it shows the quality of Golkar as a political party.
The Golkar Party central board recently reprimanded Kalla, warning him that he could be expelled from the party if he sought a presidential nomination from other political parties. Kalla is considered Aburizal's toughest challenger within the party in securing the nomination.
Hajriyanto said that Golkar would approach the issue cautiously as no official statement had been issued on Kalla's nomination. "Endorsements of a presidential candidate should not only be made in front of reporters," he said.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chief patron, Taufik Kiemas, said that Kalla only had a slim chance to succeed in the 2014 election.
"Looking at the center of political power in 2014, I don't think they have the ability to win," he said, adding that the 2014 presidential election would be decided by his wife, Megawati Soekarnoputri of PDI-P, and President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono. (cor)