Democratic Party congress to prioritize national issues

A member of the Democratic Party has denied speculation that its upcoming national congress was being held solely to quell the party's recent internal disputes.

The meeting was an annual event for the party and had more pressing matters to discuss, party member Didi Irawadi Syamsudin told The Jakarta Post on Thursday night.

“I must admit we have faced several problems recently, but that doesn’t mean this national meeting was scheduled solely to talk about them," Didi said.

"There are still a lot of [other] matters we need to discuss related to the people's real needs,” he said, adding that one of these needs was a church permit for the GKI Taman Yasmin Protestant congregation in Bogor.

When asked about whether the party had recruited a new treasurer to replace fugitive graft suspect Muhammad Nazaruddin, Didi said the party's central board was still discussing the matter.

The ruling party is set to hold its national coordination meeting at Sentul International Convention Center this weekend. As many as 3,000 party members are expected to attend tomorrow"s meeting.

Many observers have suggested the meeting will be dominated by discussions on how the party can recover from its recent internal problems.