Jakarta – A major faction of the National Awakening Party (PKB) on Thursday declared former Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla as a third contender for the party's presidential nomination.

Representatives from 24 out of the PKB's 33 provincial branches on Thursday attended an event in Banjarmasin marking Kalla's entrance into the party's internal nomination race for this year's presidential election.

Before Kalla, the PKB announced that dangdut superstar Rhoma Irama and former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud M.D. would vie to be the party's presidential hopeful.

"Are you willing to be a presidential candidate for the PKB?" Greety Tielman, the head of PKB's eastern Indonesia caucus, asked Kalla at the event. "I welcome this support and trust," Kalla responded.

Greety said after the event that support for Kalla initially came from the party's eastern Indonesian branch offices. A former chairman of the Golkar Party, Kalla was born in Bone, South Sulawesi, in 1942.

"Pak Jusuf Kalla is a representative figure for eastern Indonesia," Greety told reporters. "So it's only normal that the PKB in eastern Indonesia supports him." He added that Kalla was an experienced politician with a "proven" ability to lead.

PKB chairman Muhaimini Iskandar, who earlier nominated Roma to compete for the party's confidence, said that each candidate had an equal opportunity to run under the banner of the PKB. "We must pay attention to every [aspiring candidate]," Muhaimin said.

Under Indonesian electoral law, a party needs to collect at least 25 percent of the total national votes, or secure 20 percent of seats at the House of Representatives, to be entitled to nominate a presidential candidate. Otherwise, it must form a coalition with other parties to be able to nominate a candidate.

The PKB received 4.9 percent of the vote in the 2009 legislative election and formed a coalition with five other parties – including the Democratic Party and Golkar – to support the candidacy of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.