T

he rift within the Golkar Party has intensified with Aburizal Bakrie’s camp warning rival politicians to end their campaign to oust him as party chairman.

Fadel Muhammad, an Aburizal loyalist, said on Wednesday that three senior members of the party, Agung Laksono, Sharif Cicip Sutardjo and Priyo Budi Santoso had begun making moves against Aburizal’s leadership. Sharif is maritime affairs and fisheries minister, while Priyo is deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.

Fadel said that Agung, party deputy chairman and coordinating people’s welfare minister, had traveled extensively around the country meeting the party’s provincial and regional leaders, to build support for his bid to replace Bakrie when his term expires in 2015.

Local party leaders have confirmed Fadel’s statement. Muntasir, chairman of Golkar’s municipal chapter in Banda Aceh, and also chairman of Golkar’s regency and municipal leaders’ forum said Agung had been making political maneuvers in preparation to take over the party leadership from Aburizal.

Muntasir declined to give details about which local chapters had been the target of Agung’s maneuvering but he said: “It is a betrayal of the party and is against the party’s statutes.”

Agung has denied the accusation.

“Our first objective is to win the legislative election in April and second to win the presidential election,” he said.

In his speech to Golkar party lawmakers and local councilors on Tuesday evening, Aburizal said that he was still in charge of the party and warned party members against making efforts to seek his removal.

Aburizal called on all party members to set aside their political ambitions and concentrate on winning the legislative and presidential elections in 2014.

“The party’s national congress is still a long way off and before we get there, we have to focus on the legislative and presidential elections first,” he said, to applause from more than 2,800 Golkar members who later pledged that they would meet the party’s target of winning 33 percent of the votes and getting Aburizal elected president.

A number of senior Golkar members who were present in the room including former president BJ Habibie, former vice president Jusuf Kalla and former Golkar chairman Akbar Tanjung responded coolly to the event.

Both Kalla and Akbar have openly stated their opposition to Aburizal’s bid for the presidency given his low approval ratings in public opinion polls. Akbar recently said that the party’s decision to nominate Aburizal late last year was not yet final and could still be evaluated.

A source within Golkar said that the party was split over the list of legislative candidates which it had to submit to the General Elections Commission (KPU) by April 15. A number of Aburizal’s rivals rejected the list because it was dominated by loyalists of the party chairman.

Political analyst Iberamsyah of the University of Indonesia, said that Aburizal’s rivals would continue to use his low approval rating as a stick to beat his candidacy.

He said that Aburizal’s rivals would also use the Lapindo mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java and the alleged tax fraud involving his companies, to undermine him. “They will continue using those issues to frustrate his presidential bid,” Iberamsyah said.

He added that Golkar had set an unrealistic target of getting 33 percent of the votes. “Golkar can talk of getting 33 percent in the coming legislative election but they should remember that the next election will see voters punishing parties that fail to perform, including Golkar,” he said.