In Surabaya, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) began on Monday a halaqoh

In Surabaya, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) began on Monday a halaqoh (national ulema gathering), which has invited five presidential candidates who are expected to be pitted against each other in the July 5 election.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri was the first to turn up as she opened the event at Somerset Hotel on Monday evening.

Megawati, who is the presidential candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), met with NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi and 24 influential NU clerics, including Abdullah Faqih and Masduki Mahfud, shortly after the ceremony.

No official statement, however, was given following the meeting.

Other presidential candidates, Amien Rais, Wiranto and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, will arrive on Tuesday to speak in the ensuing seminar on public participation in the first direct presidential election.

Megawati, Amien of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Wiranto of the Golkar Party and Susilo of the Democratic Party are expected to contest the first-ever presidential election. Susilo is the only aspirant to have disclosed a running mate.

Hasyim has reportedly been courted by the PDI-P and Golkar, but said on Monday no party had officially asked him to contest the election as a running mate of its presidential candidate.

"Let's just wait and see because even I do not know when (to make a decision). The NU is not in a position to determine its preferred presidential and vice presidential candidates," Hasyim said.

The NU, the country's largest Muslim organization, boasts 40 million supporters, but has refrained from engaging in practical politics since 1984.

A number of prominent NU clerics from across the country have recommended that the National Awakening Party (PKB) they helped found in 1998 nominate Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid for the presidency.

Separately, NU deputy chairman Nurdin Arahman said Hasyim would be suitable for either Megawati or Wiranto.

"Many clerics have agreed to combine Hasyim with one of the presidential candidates. Hasyim's move to contest the election awaits the approval of clerics in attendance here," Nurdin said on the sidelines of the opening ceremony.

The halaqoh is being participated in by around 200 NU clerics from across the country.

In her opening speech, Megawati asked the elected president to terminate their loyalty to whatever political party they came from but emerge as a leader to serve the nation.

"The elected president and vice president should no longer fall under the influence of other state institutions or parties that supported their election," the President told the audience.

Like previous presidents, Megawati did not resign as PDI-P chairwoman, at the party's request. Only the founding president, her father Sukarno, switched loyalty from his party to the nation.

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Megawati said the direct presidential election would reinstate a true presidential system the country had been trying to adopt for decades. She criticized the role of parties that had disrupted the system and tried to make it a quasi-parliamentarian one.