Golkar leaders agree to allow regions to decide won candidates
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Golkar Party leaders acknowledged on Friday the ongoing series of conventions to select its presidential candidate had failed to convey the aspirations of grassroot supporters.
They, however, had reached a consensus to make amends for the failure by allowing regental branches to vote for their own preferences during the national convention, slated for between February and April next year.
"We have agreed to allow the regional chapters to choose their preferences in the convention," Golkar deputy chairman Fahmi said ahead of the party leadership meeting.
The meeting will be followed by a preconvention on Monday and Tuesday, when Golkar leaders in the central board and chapters will select five candidates to contest in the national convention.
Fahmi said the consensus was reached among members of the convention committee during a meeting on Thursday.
According to him, several party leaders proposed to repeat the selection process in Central Java because it did not reflect the aspirations of party cadres in the grass roots.
The Central Java provincial chapter excluded Akbar from the list of its presidential candidates, despite the fact that 30 out of 35 branches in regencies and municipalities voted for the Golkar chairman.
The provincial chapter, instead, nominated former chief of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto, businessman Aburizal Bakrie, media mogul Surya Paloh, former military chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto and Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla.
Fahmi said that for the sake of consistency, a number of Golkar leaders had asked provincial chapters to heed the aspirations of branches.
However, after realizing that businessman Aburizal Bakrie and media baron Surya Paloh would gain overwhelming support from provincial chapters if consistency was mandatory, the Golkar leaders changed their minds.
"They knew that if we insisted on consistency, either Aburizal Bakrie or Surya Paloh would win the convention," Fahmi said.
The latest result of the series of provincial convention shows that Aburizal and Surya have support in 28 and 27 provinces respectively. Wiranto and Akbar ranked third and fourth with support from 25 and 23 provinces each. Kalla and Yogyakarta Governor Hamengkubuwono X also qualified for next week's preconvention.
In the preconvention on Monday and Tuesday, the seven candidates will be vying for 534 votes -- 18 votes from Golkar's executive board, 10 votes from Golkar-affiliated organizations, 90 votes from 30 provincial chapters with each chapter allocated three votes and 416 votes from regental branches.
Meanwhile, convention deputy secretary Rully Chairul Azwar said there were some changes in the agenda of the preconvention proposed by regional chapters and the party executive board.
Some of them said the preconvention would not necessarily short-list the seven candidates into five. There were also demands from party leaders to allow all seven candidates to compete in the national convention next year.
Convention chairman Slamet Effendi Yusuf said the suggestions would be discussed in the leadership meeting on Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, political analyst Mohammad Qodari of the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) said he suspected the repeated changes in the rules of the game of the Golkar convention were made solely for the benefit of Akbar.