PPP looks set to nominate Hamzah Haz as president

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United Development Party (PPP), the country's third largest party, decided on Thursday to hold its congress early in 2003, with the reelection of Vice President Hamzah Haz as party chairman and his nomination in the 2004 presidential election likely to be on the agenda.

The decision was made in a plenary session before the three- day meeting closed on Thursday.

"PPP has decided to convene a congress early next year. It is based on our party's guidelines, under which a congress is held once a year," senior legislator Lukman Hakim Saefuddin told The Jakarta Post.

In the previous working meeting, PPP had changed the date of the congress from 2003 to 2004 to prepare the party for the next election.

The decision sparked strong protests from Hamzah's critics within the party, who then quit and declared the establishment of a new party called PPP Reformasi (reform), which noted Muslim preacher KH Zainuddin M.Z. currently chairs.

They argued that the postponement was a breach of PPP's guidelines on the leadership congress and accused Hamzah and his loyalists of trying to retain his position in the party.

Another PPP leader Tosari Wijaya recommended that the party's central board hold the national congress in early 2003.

It could take place between January and April at the latest, he told the Post.

Tosari said the congress would hopefully decide to maintain Hamzah as party chairman as none of the party's senior leaders were planning to challenge him in the 2003 leadership race.

Lukman further said the working meeting also recommended that the central board struggle for a direct presidential election to be held together with the 2004 General Election to elect legislators.

"We do not want the presidential election to be held separately from the legislative election for reasons of efficiency in terms of time and funds," he said.

He said PPP also demanded that direct presidential elections be outlined in the bill on general elections to be deliberated in the House of Representatives.

"Therefore, there is no need to draft a new bill on presidential elections," added Lukman, who is a member of the Ad Hoc Committee in charge of deliberating constitutional amendments.