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nother member of the opposition Red-and-White Coalition, the National Mandate Party (PAN), may see an internal rift manifest in its upcoming national congress, which will see a succession in the party.

PAN is expected to see incumbent Hatta Rajasa compete against People'€™s Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Zulkifli Hasan in the party'€™s chairmanship race slated to take place in March. Party members have already referred to the upcoming race as '€œvery dynamic'€.

Many PAN members have expressed support for both Hatta and Zulkifli, who are described as good friends and are both believed to bring good to the party, but they might be faced with a tough choice as party founder Amien Rais, who has an influential role in the party, has expressed early rejection of Hatta'€™s reelection.

None of the hopefuls have declared their candidacy but their campaign teams have approached eligible voters nationwide

'€œAlthough more candidates might emerge approaching the congress, it is clear that Pak Hatta wants to maintain the one-chairperson tradition'€, said deputy secretary-general Azis Subekti on the sidelines of the party'€™s national work meeting on Wednesday evening.

Party executive Yandri Susanto reiterated Amien'€™s preference of a new face to replace Hatta, whose term will end on March 6, explaining that Amien had gathered all party founders and other executives at the latter'€™s residence on Tuesday evening '€œto discuss measures to avoid friction that could potentially emerge from an attempt to uphold such a tradition'€.

Although no PAN executive has openly confirmed that Amien has given his blessing to Zulkifli'€™s chairmanship ticket, some have suggested that the former has granted his support for the latter, who, according to Yandri, has so far secured the support of around 400 out of 582 voters eligible to participate in the congress set to take place in Bali.

Meanwhile, several executives from the party'€™s central board, such as lawmaker Tjatur Sapto Edy and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Taufik Kurniawan, have joined the team of incumbent Hatta.

Unlike the conflict within the Golkar Party, which was partly triggered by aspirations from some leaders to join President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s Great Indonesia Coalition, PAN executives assured that PAN would remain in the opposition coalition regardless of who leads the party for the next five years.

'€œIt would be a lie to say there have not been calls from within the party to shift support to the KIH [Great Indonesia Coalition]. We can deal with differences even though doing so may not be easy,'€ Azis Subekti said.

'€œIt is possible, especially if the government uses its power to put pressure on political parties that do not obey the government,'€ he said, adding, '€œLook at what happened to the PPP [United Development Party] and Golkar'€.

Prior to the PPP announcing its support for the Indonesian Democratic Part of Struggle (PDI-P)-led Great Indonesia Coalition, an opposition faction within the Islamic-based party challenged the leadership of former chairman Suryadharma Ali following his declaration of support for the Prabowo-Hatta presidential ticket.

A few months after the July presidential election last year, Golkar also followed suit, challenging the reelection of chairman Aburizal Bakrie.