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.