Moving on: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (right) receives Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa (center) and Gerindra Party chief patron and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto at the Presidential Office in Jakarta on Tuesday
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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party will have to end its ambition of forming a coalition to nominate its own presidential candidate after its biggest ally, the Golkar Party, opted on Tuesday to join an alliance led by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
As most parties have either joined the PDI-P-led coalition or the Gerindra Party's alliance, the Democrats and the Hanura Party are the only major parties to remain undecided.
Having garnered 11.81 percent of the vote in the April 9 legislative election, it is virtually impossible for the Democrats to meet the 25 percent minimum-vote threshold required to nominate a presidential candidate.
An alliance with Hanura would not help much as the party only received 5.26 percent of the vote.
The PDI-P alliance, which has nominated Jakarta Governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo as its presidential candidate, has a combined total of 49.46 percent of the vote, while the Gerindra axis has 32.72 percent. Gerindra has nominated its chief patron Prabowo Subianto for the presidential race.
Several Democratic Party executives said the party would not rush to decide on its future plans as it would still need to wait for the outcome of its presidential convention on May 15.
'We can only talk about forming a coalition or joining existing alliances after the convention. As you know, we still have 11 convention participants who are competing for the ticket,' said party executive Jero Wacik, who is also the energy and mineral resources minister.
Another party executive, EE Mangindaan, said the party had no 'plan B' as it was still in the middle of arranging a strategy.
'We have yet to bring it [a coalition plan] up. We'll wait for the survey of the convention first,' said Mangindaan, who is also the transportation minister.
However, the winner of the convention is unlikely to get either a presidential or vice-presidential slot as the two major coalition camps already have their candidates.
Jokowi is still reportedly pondering between two names as his vice-presidential candidate: former vice president Jusuf Kalla and Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Abraham Samad.
Prabowo is on the verge of naming National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman and Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa as his running mate.
As the Democrats have few options, Prabowo said he hoped Yudhoyono would be willing to join his coalition. 'I am not the Democratic Party leader. But I hope the party will join us. We have hopes of that,' Prabowo said after a meeting with Yudhoyono at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday.
Prabowo and Hatta jointly met Yudhoyono to request his permission for Hatta to resign as part of Hatta's intention to pair with Prabowo. Hatta, whose eldest daughter is married to Yudhoyono's youngest son, refused to comment on whether their visit was also aimed at luring Yudhoyono to join their alliance.
Speculation is rife that Yudhoyono is still attempting to join the PDI-P coalition to ensure that, should Jokowi win the presidency, the administration will not come after him and his family to exact political
revenge.
PDI-P chairwoman and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri is widely known to harbor a deep grudge against Yudhoyono.
She has consistently refused to mend fences with Yudhoyono as a result of what she regards as an act of disloyalty by him.
In 2001, Yudhoyono, then Megawati's coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister, assured her he would not run in the 2004 presidential election. However, he went on to contest the election with the backing of his self-formed Democratic Party and snatched the presidency from her.
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