T

he Hanura Party remains undecided on whether it will form part of any coalition in the July 9 presidential election after the party'€™s national executive meeting failed to reach a consensus on which presidential candidate it will support.

The meeting gave the authority to party chairman Wiranto to decide which coalition the party would join.

Hanura executive Saleh Husin said party executives thought it was too early to make any decision regarding the formation of a coalition.

'€œHanura has agreed to support the presidential candidate with the biggest chance of winning the race, but we also realize that ongoing political dynamics of coalition building could also affect the electability rating of presidential candidates,'€ Saleh said.

The meeting, which wrapped up early on Wednesday morning, was initially aimed at deciding which presidential candidate the party would support, but national and provincial executives made various suggestions during the six-hour closed-door meeting, favoring different presidential hopefuls.

There are at least three such hopefuls expected to join the July 9 race; the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle'€™s (PDI-P) Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, the Gerindra Party'€™s Prabowo Subianto and the Golkar Party'€™s Aburizal Bakrie.

None of the candidates have named their running mates.

Among the three, only Jokowi has secured the minimum 25 percent of the popular vote required to join the race following the decision of the NasDem Party to join its coalition.

With no decision made by party executives on which candidates the party would back, the meeting concluded Wiranto would be given the prerogative to decide which presidential candidate Hanura would support and what parties it would build a coalition with.

'€œI presented to party executives what political lobbying I have so far conducted. The meeting eventually gave me the mandate to continue the lobbying and also officially gave me the mandate to decide on the issue of a coalition for the upcoming presidential candidate,'€ Wiranto told the press after the meeting.

Party executive Yuddy Chrisnandi said Wiranto would decide which candidate Hanura would support when all the candidates had named their running mates.

With Hanura securing an approximate 5 percent of the vote in the April 9 legislative election according to quick counts, the party will not possess the leverage to propose a vice presidential candidate.

'€œWith 5 percent, Hanura deserves three Cabinet seats if we can seal a coalition deal early on, but given this meeting the party may join a coalition at the last minute. In that case, we will be lucky if we get one ministerial seat,'€ Yuddy said.