G

olkar Party heavyweights confirmed Monday that Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, is, along with media magnate Surya Paloh, the top contender to replace Vice President Jusuf Kalla as chairman of the party after his all but official defeat in the presidential election.

As officials from 33 regional Golkar branches gathered at Golkar's headquarters in Jakarta on Monday for a national consultation meeting to discuss the results of the recent presidential election, pressure to hold the party's annual national caucus early so that the next chairman could be decided gained momentum.

Golkar deputy chairman Muladi said although the party had yet to discuss the party's future chairman, Aburizal and Paloh were the strongest candidates for the post.

"Some also mention Yudi Krisnandi, but he will just make the contest merrier," he said.

However, before Aburizal or Surya are considered for the post, they must commit to filling 50 percent of Golkar's positions with younger members, Muladi said.

"This is the aspiration of most of the members with the goal of making succession and transfers of power from one generation to the next run smoothly," he said.

Muladi added he personally would vote for Aburizal, the country's wealthiest businessman, because of his emotional closeness with the well-known capitalist.

"Besides I think his programs are real. But don't get me wrong, I'm not opposing Surya Paloh."

Even though finding a replacement for Kalla was not specifically discussed at Monday's consultation meeting, many factions within the party have begun to push to make it a priority.

"More than half of Golkar's regional branches have asked for the national caucus to be brought forward," Golkar deputy chairman Agung Laksono told reporters.

According to the unofficial quick counts of a number of pollsters, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won the July 8 election, securing more than 60 percent of the total vote, with former president Megawati Soekarnoputri coming a distant second, with less than 30 percent of votes, and Kalla managing to secure just 12 percent of votes.

The results have led some Golkar members to question Kalla's leadership, with many voicing their opinion that the caucus meeting should be held early so that a new party chairman can be selected.

Golkar central executive, Firman Subagyo, said the results of the election were discussed at Monday's meeting.

"The worst results were in Aceh and West Sumatra, where we only received around 4 percent of total votes," he said.

He added they could not deny Yudhoyono's strong influence.

"But that is the advantage of being an incumbent. He could campaign through his programs long before the official campaign period began."