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ormer president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid has called on supporters of Indonesia's largest muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), not to vote for the National Awakening Party (PKB) and its legislative candidates under Muhaimin's camp in the incoming legislative election, due to a continued split in the party.

Speaking before thousands of NU supporters at an informal gathering here on Sunday, Gus Dur, who is also the former chairman of the board of patrons of the PKB, said there was no political reason to support Muhaimin's camp because no legislative candidates on Gus Dur's side of the split party had been nominated to contend the legislative election.

"If this party (Muhaimin's PKB) is accepted by the government and allowed to contend the general election, there is no need to vote for it; You should ignore it," Gus Dur said.

Gus Dur also accused the government of conspiring with Muhaimin to disrupt the PKB - a party that he and many other influential clerics had co-founded in 1998 with the support of many NU supporters in the province.

The PKB had split into two camps in 2007, and deputy House speaker Muhaimin Iskandar was recognized as the new party leader by the government and the Supreme Court. Winning support from many PKB officials, Muhaimin launched a strong campaign of protest when Gus Dur moved to promote his daughter Yenny Wahid as secretary-general of the party.

At the recent gathering, Gus Dur went on to call on supporters to ignore a contentious edict issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), and boycott the election. With abstention high in the West, Central and East Java gubernatorial elections, MUI had declared it haram not to vote in the general election.

At the same gathering, Yenny Wahid said what her party was experiencing was similar to what the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) saw under former president Soeharto's New Order regime in the 1990s.

"But in the end, Soerjadi, the government-backed chairman of PDI, disappeared and Megawati Soekarnoputri emerged as the authentic leader of PDI Perjuangan, fully backed by party supporters," Yenny said.

Yenny denied that her father had been alienated and said one day he would reemerge as the PKB's true leader.