Wiranto tells Akbar to resign from party leadership

Wiranto tells Akbar to resign from party leadership

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In an apparent attempt to ensure a level playing field during the
upcoming Golkar convention to select the party's presidential
candidate, one of the contenders, former military chief Gen.
(ret) Wiranto, openly called on party chairman Akbar Tandjung to
step aside.

Wiranto, considered among Akbar's strongest rival at the
convention, which is slated for next Tuesday, said that Akbar's
position as party chairman would only result in unfairness in the
decision-making process, which the party insists will be
democratic.

"Bung Akbar should relinquish his post to someone else.
Otherwise all meetings related to the convention will be biased,"
Wiranto told the press here on Friday.

His statement further confirmed the rift within Golkar given
Akbar's advantage over his five rivals of being party leader and
Speaker of the House of Representatives. Akbar's chance for the
presidency was also boosted when the Supreme Court acquitted him
of charges of embezzling Rp 40 billion in state funds.

The party's Central Executive Board (DPP) revealed on Thursday
that it would vote for Akbar at the convention, citing Akbar's
pivotal role in the party's good showing in the legislative
election.

The party ranks has topped the polls so far at the national
level, and has secured a majority of votes in almost all
provinces. However, with only some 20 percent of overall vote so
far, it has fared less well than it did in the 1999 polls, when
it took 22 percent of the vote.

Although the central board's backing does not necessarily mean
an Akbar victory at the April 20 convention, it could influence
undecided members.

Under convention rules, the central board accounts for just 18
votes, while regental/municipal branches and provincial chapters
account for 440 and 96 votes respectively.

Separately, party deputy leader Marwah Daud Ibrahim also
called on Akbar to relinquish his post so as to ensure fairness.

However, deputy secretary Rully Chairul Azwar dismissed the
possibility of a conflict of interest, saying that Akbar had
never intervened in meetings of the convention committee.

"Golkar has no chain of command where the party leader can
easily order regental branches or provincial chapters around,"
Rully added.

However "personal approaches" were allowed by all contestants,
he said.

Rully said that committee members were still discussing
whether the convention would require a simple majority or require
candidates to gain more than half of the total votes to win.

Rully said that the committee had scrapped rules that required
regental/municipal and provincial chapter delegates to be
accompanied by their chapter chiefs inside the polling booth to
ensure they voted the right way.

He also clarified that the number of regental/municipal
branches was not 440 as stated by fellow party leader Slamet
Effendi Yusuf.

"It is true that we have 440 regencies and municipalities. But
we have chapters with offices in only 421 of them," he said.

With Golkar's mass organizations having 10 votes, the total
number of votes at the convention will be 545.