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lthough the tenure of Aburizal Bakrie is not due to expire until next year, prominent Golkar Party politicians have made a head start in the race for the party chairmanship.

Senior Golkar politician and current Industry Minister, MS Hidayat, announced on Monday that he would run as a candidate for the party leadership during the party'€™s congress, scheduled for early next year.

Hidayat said that he had asked for permission to contest the race from Aburizal. '€œI'€™ve asked for the [chairman'€™s] permission to go forward,'€ said Hidayat, as quoted by tribunnews.com, on Monday.

Hidayat said that he had held consolidation meetings with regional party leaders while he was on the campaign trail. Hidayat is one of Golkar'€™s candidates in this year'€™s legislative election.

Aburizal has previously denied rumors that a rift has occurred within the party and he insists that he will only step down when his term expires in 2015.

In addition to Hidayat, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister, and party deputy chairman, Sharif Cicip Sutardjo and Coordinating People'€™s Welfare Minister Agung Laksono, have also been tipped to replace Bakrie in next year'€™s congress.

While Sharif is reported to have been mooted by Aburizal as his preferred successor, Agung made his ambition clear last November when he declared his preparedness to run with the support of Kosgoro 1957, a mass organization affiliated to Golkar.

Aburizal has been struggling with low popularity ratings in the lead-up to the elections, and has faced a good deal of internal criticism from early on in his tenure as party leader.

Many have speculated that Golkar advisory council chairman Akbar Tandjung, who enjoys strong support within the party, will take over the party from Aburizal, and that he will use the position to negotiate with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to get a vice-presidential position alongside the party'€™s presidential candidate Joko Widodo.

Siti Zuhro, a political researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that such political maneuvering by party elites was normal in politics.

'€œPolitical parties are pragmatic and opportunistic organizations. Anything goes as long as the hunger for power does not lead to personal attacks,'€ Siti told The Jakarta Post by phone on Monday.

Siti said that she could understand how Aburizal was not fully in control of the party as his nomination as party chairman had not won the support of a majority of the party elite and membership.

'€œThis has given rise to an absence of camaraderie within the party ranks,'€ he said.

Moving forward, Siti said that Golkar needed to address the issue of competent leadership and look for a different approach to win the support of voters.

She said that Golkar could revive the idea of a presidential convention, which the party first initiated.

Siti also said that holding on to the support of Golkar supporters was not enough.

'€œIn order to win over voters, political parties must appear united before their supporters,'€ she said. (tjs)