Senior officials have sought to play down suggestions that the Golkar Party will re-evaluate its decision to name its chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, as its presidential candidate for next year's election, amid poor poll numbers.

Sharif Cicip Sutardjo, a party deputy chairman, said on Tuesday that the matter of the party's candidate was settled and there would be no backtracking.

"There will be no change [of nominee]," he said at the State Palace as quoted by Tempo.co. "There's no more [questioning]. We've already made the decision at a national coordinating meeting. Twice."

Calls are mounting from in and outside the party for Golkar to consider an alternative candidate to Aburizal, who most opinion polls indicate will finish outside the top three in the 2014 election.

The most recent survey, conducted by the United Data Center (PDB) last month, showed that only 11.6 percent of the 1,200 respondents polled would vote for Aburizal, or less than half of the 26 percent who said they would vote for Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo.

In second and third places respectively were Prabowo Subianto, the founder and chief patron of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), with 20 percent, and Megawati Sukarnoputri, the chairwoman of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), with 13 percent.

A survey of nearly 1,800 respondents in June by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) produced a similar outcome, with 22 percent for Joko, 14 percent for Prabowo and 9 percent each for Megawati and Aburizal.

Agung Laksono, another Golkar deputy chairman, said he was optimistic about Aburizal's prospects, despite what the polls suggested. He said the party was studying all the aspects of the chairman's candidacy that could be improved and would continue its campaign.

"Over the next few months, I believe there will be an increase in his electability," Agung, who is also the coordinating minister for people's welfare, said as quoted by Tempo.co.

However, cracks have appeared in the united front that Golkar has sought to present for its presidential choice, with some in the party openly calling for Aburizal to step aside in favor of more popular figures such as Jusuf Kalla, the former vice president.

Akbar Tanjung, a former Golkar chairman and one of the most respected figures in the party, previously called for a re-evaluation of the decision not to consider any other candidate, but has not explicitly said that Aburizal should not run.