D

espite signs of internal support, businessman and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal “Ical” Bakrie is playing down plans to run for president in 2014.

Ical, dubbed one of the strongest potential contenders in 2014, has been called Golkar’s most appropriate candidate by party officials at the regional level.

“People have aspirations … that’s normal. This is democracy,” Ical said on the sidelines of Golkar’s national executive board meeting in North Jakarta on Wednesday.

Ical said he would not rush into running for president, wanting to focus on improving the popularity of Golkar’s legislative candidates during the run-up to the election.

“In the last legislative election we received 14.45 percent [of the vote]. Recent surveys show our popularity is at 18 percent. I believe we can reach 20 percent, or even 30 or 35 percent, in the 2014 election – more than the PDI-P [Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle] received in the 1999 election,” Ical said in his speech at the meeting.

“Our study of the aspirations of Golkar at the grassroots level nationwide is still not enough.”

Ical said Golkar’s would name its presidential candidate in 2012.

Observers expected the meeting to be a forum for the party to formally back Ical as its candidate in 2014.

The agenda of the meeting, which ends on Friday, includes a discussion of the upcoming election.

The meeting on Wednesday was attended by more than 700 Golkar members from across the nation, who crowded the meeting room while shouting “Go Golkar!”

Delegates applauded during the opening address of meeting chairman Sharif Cicip Sutarjo after he dubbed Ical as “the most recognizable figure to be the next president.”

A Golkar member from South Kalimantan who declined to be named said that party officials down to the regency level in the province agreed to support Ical should he be named the party’s candidate.

“We have no other option,” another Golkar member from Papua said.

Analysts have called Ical’s reluctance to openly or quickly accept support for a presidential bid part of a wait-and-see strategy to gauge the response of other major political groups.

Several surveys have named Ical one of the most popular potential candidates in 2014.

However, observers have said Ical’s bid could face serious threats from other potential hopefuls, such as former Army Strategic Reserves Command chief Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto, the founder of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra); and former Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

Some surveys, however, have placed Ical behind PDI-P chairwoman and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of the nation’s first president.

Observers said that the ongoing mud flow disaster in Sidoarjo, East Java, which has been linked to an operational failure by energy companies belonging to the Bakrie family, might be a liability that competitors could exploit during the race.

Others said that the Democratic Party’s best option to replace Yudhoyono, who cannot run for relection due to term limits, would be to nominate reform icon Sri Mulyani as its presidential candidate.

Yudhoyono’s latest Cabinet reshuffle, which included the firing of Fadel Muhammad as Maritime Affairs and Fishery Minister, was seen by some as an effort to please Ical.

Fadel, a top Golkar executive, had close ties to Golkar chief patron Akbar Tandjung, who frequently opposed Ical’s policies within the party.