Rizal Harahap and Hyginus Hardoyo, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru, Riau | Wed, 10/07/2009 2:20 PM
At its national meeting on Tuesday, the Golkar Party endorsed rulings to accommodate four candidates for the party's top post, but one session had to be stopped when a brawl almost broke out.
Under the rulings, each of the candidates is required to have occupied a position in the executive board of the party and/or one of its affiliate organizations such as Kosgoro, MKGR and SOKSI.
All four candidates - Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra (the youngest son of former president Soeharto), Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, media magnate Surya Paloh and legislator Yuddy Chrisnandi - have met all requirements necessary for them to proceed into the chairmanship election.
Aburizal is a member of the party's outgoing patron board, Surya is the chief patron, Tommy is a former member of MKGR's patron board, and Yuddy is the chairman of the party's membership and cadre organization department.
The rulings stipulate that the election will comprise up to two rounds. In the first round, candidates must gain the support of at least 30 percent of the total 538 votes to be included in the second round.
If in the first round only one candidate manages to gain the minimum level of support, he will automatically be chosen as the general chairman of the party. If there are two candidates or more, a second round will be held.
If a candidate manages to garner 50 percent of votes plus one in the first round, he will automatically be declared the winner, even if another candidate garners 30 percent of votes.
"It was agreed that if a candidate received more than 50 percent of votes, this candidate would automatically become the general chairman of the party," Golkar's former general chairman, Akbar Tanjung, said.
The first-round vote will likely be held in a closed-door session, and a ballot system has been proposed to facilitate the vote.
"It is likely this ballot marking system will be used, but this is a technical issue still being discussed," Akbar said.
If no candidate gains more than 50 percent of votes in the second round, theoretically the election could go on to a third round, but regulations for a third round have yet to be set.
"We don't anticipate needing a third round," said Rully Chairil Azwar, the head of Golkar's executive chairmanship board.
After Vice President Jusuf Kalla gave his accountability speech, covering his work as party chairman over the past five years, all delegates agreed to appoint Saymsul Muarif from the central executive board, three provincial functionaries and an individual from an affiliated organization to preside over the plenary session until its conclusion on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a brawl almost broke out during a plenary session to discuss the internal rulings of the congress because of a poor sound system. The Golkar Party's outgoing general chairman Jusuf Kalla, who presided over the session, could not understand what participants on the floor were saying. "The sound was heard, but could not be understood," he said.
Later, the session was bombarded with interruptions, requesting the meeting be postponed to repair the sound system. However, Kalla turned down the requests since there were still many paragraphs that had yet to be finalized.
Another storm of interrup-tions took place. This time it was apparently sparked by discontent over a decision by the session chairman to only give one representative from each province a chance to speak.
"*The decision* was made for efficiency's sake and in respect for the freedom of speech. If all representatives spoke the session would have taken more than a month to finish," Kalla said.
A clamour broke out as delegates fought each other for the microphone.
"Nearly all attendants stood up and shouted loudly," Golkar Palembang chapter head M. Yansuri said.
As the situation got out of control, police officers entered the meeting room and journalists were banned from entering to cover the incident.
The chaos also apparently had something to do with delegates who had been fragmented into the camps of candidates contending the party's chairmanship.
