T

he Golkar Party is becoming increasingly polarized over the nomination of chairman Aburizal Bakrie as the party'€™s presidential candidate in the 2014 elections, with more party members beginning to question his electability.

It has been more than a year since the party officially nominated Aburizal in Sentul, West Java, in July 2012, but his popularity as a presidential candidate has remained low, far below that of Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, who has not '€” until now '€” declared any intention to run.

Golkar stalwart Akbar Tandjung, who now chairs the party'€™s board of advisors and is known to have loyal followers within the party, said recently that many party members at regional and local levels wanted a presidential candidate other than Aburizal.

'€œLeaders of local party branches expressed their concerns over the matter to me. They wanted me to convey their aspirations during the upcoming national executives meeting in October,'€ he said.

'€œMany local chapters said they were disappointed because facilities and other benefits the party'€™s central executive board had promised them in exchange for their support of Aburizal'€™s nomination had not been realized.'€

While refusing to detail the promised benefits, the senior politician claimed Aburizal'€™s low electability had been the primary concern. '€œThis is a serious issue. The board of advisors will ask the executive board to analyze and identify what problems caused the party'€™s political machine to fail to work as expected,'€ he said.

Golkar lawmaker Yorrys Raweyai told Kompas.com that many party local members had repeatedly asked the party to make good on its commitment to disburse '€œdonations worth between Rp 5 million [US$460] to Rp 15 million.'€

'€œMaybe the party is facing financial constraints,'€ he said.

Yorrys claimed members who rejected Aburizal'€™s presidential bid were so numerous that '€œthey are currently the silent majority in Golkar.'€

Analysts said that Golkar, currently the country'€™s second-biggest party based on parliamentary seats, would remain strong in the legislative elections slated for April, 2014. But it would be difficult for the party to win the presidency, regardless of the legislative result, given Aburizal'€™s tarnished image.

One major factor survey polls said affected the media mogul'€™s popularity was the mudflow disaster in Sidoarjo, East Java, which was allegedly caused by improper drilling by PT Lapindo Brantas, an exploration company partly controlled by the Bakrie family. The ongoing mudflow has displaced thousands and cost the government trillions of rupiah in recovery measures.

In December last year, Akbar set a six-month deadline for Aburizal to boost his electability. Though the deadline has already long passed, Akbar said he had not been '€œtoo complacent'€.

Golkar deputy secretary-general Nurul Arifin downplayed the apparent rift within Golkar, saying that Akbar had previously expressed his commitment to support Aburizal'€™s bid before party executives. '€œIt was the third time Akbar has made such a statement [expressing concern], but I think what he meant was that there should be an evaluation of the works in supporting Aburizal'€™s bid, not necessarily of evaluating the candidate.'€

Deputy chairman Agung Laksono shared Nurul'€™s opinion. '€œI must admit the programs in preparing Aburizal to face the presidential election have not been implemented to the optimal level, with some shortcomings here and there. But the decision to nominate Aburizal itself is final and will never be changed,'€ he said.

A study conducted by Soegeng Sarjadi School of Government last month placed Aburizal as the fourth most electable candidate in the 2014 presidential election. His electability, according to the survey, was 4.23 percent, below Jokowi, who topped the list with 25.48 percent, Prabowo with 10.52 percent and Kalla with 5.69 percent.

Also in July, the Indonesia Research Center issued its study on the most electable presidential candidate, which also put Jokowi at number one with 34.2 percent. Aburizal was at number 7 with 3.2 percent, below Prabowo (8.2 percent), Megawati (6.1 percent) and Kalla (3.7 percent).