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Amid rifts, Hanura to decide on coalition partner this afternoon
Dozens of executives and provincial leaders of the Hanura Party are scheduled to attend the partyâs national executive meeting in Jakarta, Tuesday afternoon, to choose the partyâs coalition partners ahead of the July 9 presidential election, a party executive has said
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ozens of executives and provincial leaders of the Hanura Party are scheduled to attend the party's national executive meeting in Jakarta, Tuesday afternoon, to choose the party's coalition partners ahead of the July 9 presidential election, a party executive has said.
'Today's national meeting will have only one agenda: to make a formal decision regarding Hanura's coalition partners, nothing more,' party executive Sarifuddin Sudding told The Jakarta Post.
He brushed off comments by fellow party executives suggesting that the meeting would also discuss the fate of media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibjo, the party's vice presidential candidate who was also tasked with leading the party's campaign for the April 9 legislative election.
Sudding claimed that Hanura's coalition partner had actually been confirmed and that the executive meeting was 'just a formality.' He, however, refused to disclose which party Hanura would align itself with.
'It is the party that has been widely reported by the media [to have been forging political cooperation with Hanura],' he said. 'Some politicians from that party even urged us to announce the coalition immediately, however, we told them our party has a mechanism that must be followed before making such an announcement.'
Hanura chairman Wiranto had met with various political party leaders including the Golkar Party's Aburizal Bakrie and the Gerindra Party's Prabowo Subianto. Some Hanura politicians indicated that Hanura was very close to sealing a political deal with Gerindra and supporting Prabowo's presidential bid.
Among Hanura members who had voiced concerns over Hary's performance during the last campaign season was executive Yudd Chrisnandi.
Yuddy had also been vocal in urging Hary to resign from his position as the head of the party's campaign team. Yuddy is Hary's predecessor in that position.
'Hanura performed poorly in the legislative election, and Hary must be held responsible. His management of the campaign team was very unprofessional,' he said.
The former Golkar politician had also suggested that Hanura support Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) presidential candidate Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo.
Despite having widespread media coverage and various advertisements through Hary's vast media network at its disposal, Hanura 'only' got around 5 percent of the vote, according to pollsters.
Sudding defended Hary by saying that the percentage of the vote Hanura got, albeit small, was still higher than the 3.77 percent the party garnered in the 2009 election.
