T

he son of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Edhie “Ibas” Baskoro Yudhoyono, is considered the strongest candidate to lead the embattled Democratic party following the resignation of former chairman Anas Urbaningrum late last week.

Democratic Party advisory board deputy chairman and member of its supreme assembly Marzuki Alie hinted that Ibas would be the right person to lead the party following the departure of Anas.

“If people want to mention Ibas’ name, I can say that there’s nothing wrong with that,” Marzuki told reporters on the sidelines of a consultative meeting between the House of Representatives and Yudhoyono at the State Palace on Monday.

Marzuki, however, said that Ibas would have to go through the democratic process before he could be elected chairman.

“The party does not recognize a direct appointment system, everything will have to go through a democratic mechanism,” Marzuki said.

Earlier this month Ibas resigned from his position as member of the House so that he could concentrate on his job as party secretary-general.

Speculation is also rife that Marzuki himself could be one of the candidates to take the place of Anas. But Marzuki, who came second in a vote for the party leadership in a 2010 congress in Bandung, West Java, declined to comment when asked if he would enter the race for the party leadership.

In fact, he said that the party had yet to discuss the selection of a new chairman. “It’s still a long way off. We have yet to talk about it. What’s important now is that the party’s central executive board runs as usual under the collective leadership,” he said.

A group of Yudhoyono loyalists has been appointed as members of the interim collective leadership of the party following Anas’ resignation on Saturday.

The four party officials — deputy chairmen Max Sopacua and Jhonny Alen Marbun; secretary-general Ibas; and party executive director Toto Riyanto — are now in charge of the party until an extraordinary party congress is held to elect a new chairman.

The decision was made following a closed-door meeting involving the party’s supreme assembly in the early hours of Sunday, a move believed to be Yudhoyono’s effort to counter Anas.

Marzuki also denied speculation that the extraordinary party congress would soon be staged to directly appoint a successor to Anas.

“There is no provision within the party statutes that the supreme assembly can make that appointment. According to the statutes the chairman has to be elected through a [normal] congress, so of course the replacement must also be selected through the congress,” he said.

Saan Mustopa, a party’ deputy secretary and a close associate of Anas also denied the speculation.

“I have not heard about such maneuvers, nor about a plan to hold an extraordinary party congress,” he said at the House building on Monday.

Yet on Monday, Democratic Party politicians at the House held a closed-door meeting, fueling further speculation that the jockeying had started among the party members to fill the vacuum left by Anas.

Nurhayati Assegaf, the chairperson of the party’s faction at the House, denied the meeting was part of preparations to crown Ibas.

“Today we discussed [only] the latest situation within our faction following Anas’ resignation. We expect to have a congress but we’re not yet sure if it is going to be an extraordinary party congress,” she said.

Nurhayati also expected that Ibas would not be nominated for the party leadership. “I don’t think Ibas will be nominated, nor will he nominate himself,” she said.

Meanwhile, in his capacity as an interim leader of the party Ibas chaired a leadership meeting at the party headquarters in Kramat, Central Jakarta on Monday. Party officials attending the meeting said that party executives were briefed by Ibas about the latest state of the party following Anas’ resignation.

An Anas loyalist Saan Mustopa denied rumors that there was an instruction from Anas that his supporters should leave the party in a show of solidarity. “Everybody is entitled to their own political stance and we respect that. We never asked them to resign, nor gave them such a hint,” he said, adding that Anas himself had resigned from the party and was no longer a member.