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ollowing his reelection as chairman of the Golkar Party, Aburizal Bakrie announced the lineup of the party'€™s central board, which he filled with a number of his rivals who had challenged him in the race for the party leadership.

Among Aburizal'€™s rivals in the lineup were MS Hidayat, who was appointed the party'€™s executive chairman, a new post in the party'€™s central board, and Airlangga Hartarto as the head of the party'€™s industry and trade department.

Aburizal said he had spoken with Airlangga and was assured that he would accept the new position.

Airlangga withdrew from the race for the party chairmanship and left the congress on Tuesday, after lambasting Aburizal for abusing his power by influencing congress participants to vote for him.

'€œWe have reduced the number of positions in the central board from the current 360 to 199. The young party members dominate the new structure, making up 70 percent of the central board membership, as we'€™re committed to improving the regeneration of the party and preparing the country'€™s future leaders,'€ Aburizal said.

Meanwhile, Nurdin Halid, a graft convict who is known as Aburizal'€™s right-hand man and served as head of the steering committee during the congress, was selected to be one of the party'€™s nine deputy chairpersons.

Nurdin denied he was awarded the position because of his contributions toward securing the congress and getting Aburizal reelected.

'€œI was asked by the chairman to improve the party'€™s organizational structure,'€ Nurdin said.

The other deputy chairpersons chosen for the lineup were Theo L. Sambuaga, Setya Novanto, Sharif Cicip Sutardjo, Fadel Muhammad, Siti Hediati '€œTitiek'€ Hariyadi, Ahmadi Nur Supit, Ade Komarudin and Aziz Syamsuddin.

Idrus Marham was re-elected the party'€™s secretary-general and was given the task of '€œconsolidating'€ the Red-and-White Coalition, the opposition caucus in the House of Representatives led by Golkar and the Gerindra Party.

Leaders of parties in the Red-and-White Coalition, including the Gerindra Party'€™s Prabowo Subianto, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Anis Matta, former chairman of the United Development Party (PPP) Suryadharma Ali and the party'€™s new chairman Djan Faridz, attended the closing ceremony.

Visibly absent from the ceremony was National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Hatta Radjasa and Democratic Party executive chairman Syarifuddin Hassan.

In his speech, Prabowo congratulated Aburizal for his reelection and said he was optimistic that it would further strengthen the coalition.

'€œThe coalition is grateful [for Aburizal'€™s reelection]. His commitment is clear, to defend the sovereignty of our nation,'€ Prabowo said, to applause from the audience.

Speaking from the podium after Prabowo, Aburizal ruled out that he would run in the 2019 presidential election.

'€œI am now 68 years old and I have no ambition to be the next president and choose to improve the regeneration within the party, including by providing more positions for younger members on the central board,'€ he said.

Analysts said that the reelection of Aburizal would make it hard for President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to rally support for his policies in the House.

'€œGolkar'€™s executives, such as Pak Aburizal and [deputy chairman] Pak Nurdin Halid, have reiterated that the party will be critical toward the government'€™s policies. The party'€™s stance will undoubtedly determine the path of the KMP [Red-and-White Coalition] because the coalition is practically led by Golkar,'€ said political observer Agung Suprio of the University of Indonesia.