Ezra Sihite – The National Mandate Party (PAN) has agreed to nominate Hatta Rajasa, its chairman as well as Indonesia's coordinating minister for the economy, as the party's candidate for the 2014 presidential election.

A deputy chairman of the party, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan, said all party cadres had agreed to Hatta's nomination, although PAN had yet to plan an event to declare the presidential bid.

"That will still have to wait," Zulkifli said in Jakarta on Wednesday, adding that Hatta himself had yet to approve of his nomination.

Zulkifli said PAN was confident that Hatta's popularity would increase ahead of the 2014 election, and that PAN was ready to continue its partnership with its coalition partners, including the Democratic Party and the National Awakening Party (PKB), for the 2014 poll.

Hatta, who celebrated his 59th birthday on Tuesday, is a close aide to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the founder of the Democratic Party. He is also the father-in-law of the president's youngest son, Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono.

Hatta said on Tuesday that Yudhoyono had presented him with a birthday gift, although he refused to say what it consisted of, before the president took off for a working visit to Malaysia and India.

Edhie and his wife, Siti Ruby Aliya Rajasa, are expecting a baby later this month.