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enior Democratic Party member and former Army chief of staff Gen. (ret)Pramono Edhie Wibowo has said that the party is open to supporting presidentialcandidate Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Hatta Rajasa.

He explained that the political pair had already asked the Democrats to listento their mission statement in Jakarta on June 1, as reported by tribunnews.com.

"The Democratic Party's decision will be based on the party member's opinion on their [Prabowo and Hatta's] mission statement," he said on Saturday.

Pramono added that the prior decision of the Democrats to remain neutral during the 2014 presidential election did not mean that the party members were not allowed to show their support for
their preferred candidate.

Although party chairman President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated that theywere ready to be an opposition party, he asked members to vote for the presidential candidate who champions a
platform in line with the Democrats on May 18.

"If we have similar platforms then there is a chance for the Democratic Party to declare their support for Prabowo-Hatta," Pramono, whois the President's in-law brother, said.

Pramono emphasized that Prabowo and Hatta had invited the Dems to listen to their mission statement on their own prerogative and denied that chairman Yudhoyono had asked for opposing presidential candidate Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and running mate Jusuf Kalla to also present
their mission statement to the party. (fss)