Jakarta – Local leaders of the National Awakening Party (PKB) reelected incumbent party chairman Muhaimin Iskandar over the weekend in a national congress in Bali that was marred by a raucous street protest.

A total of 514 leaders of regency-level party branches and 34 leaders of provincial party branches have agreed in acclamation to reappoint Muhaimin for his fifth term in office. Muhaimin has been serving as party chairman since 2005.

"If this is the decision, I will accept the request from all of my colleagues that I am the new chairman of the PKB," Muhaimin said in his acceptance speech, as quoted from Kompas.com on Saturday.

In his speech following the win, Muhaimin pledged that he would wean the party off from the influence of the country's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama.

"The talks among Muslim clerics is that the PKB not being supported by the NU in the last presidential election has given us good results. One of the good outcomes is that we got more votes. This is a blessing for the PKB to be more independent," Muhaimin said.

Earlier on Saturday, as local party leaders prepared to cast their votes in the PKB leadership race, hundreds of protesters who claimed to be supporters and members of the NU clashed with security guards near the convention hall where the national meeting was taking place.

The protesters called Muhaimin a traitor who stole the party from former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2024/08/26/muhaimin-reelected-chairman-of-pkb.htm